Giving my Praktica LTL a second chance

Two walks around Florence captured on film.

I have an old Praktica LTL camera, which I am not very good friends with. (I wrote a bit about it in this post). Everything is manual, and it’s not always easy for me to nail focus and exposure.

It was gifted to me some years ago together with two lenses: a 28 mm and a 50 mm. For some reason up until now I had only used the 28 mm lens, and the outcome was almost always disappointing. Even when I got focus and exposure right, the quality of the photos was just bad. (And not in the charming “analog” way).

After receiving the scans of my last roll shot with this camera, I promised myself, that I wouldn’t waste any more frames, film or money on the Praktica LTL, and I had put it back on the shelf, where it was supposed to just be on display. (At least it’s a beautiful camera!)

But then I remembered the 50 mm lens. And I realized, that it was worth trying it out to see, if the quality of the images would be better. Also because to be honest 28 mm isn’t my ideal focal length. I am much more comfortable with 35 mm and 50 mm.

So I loaded a roll of Kodak t-max 100 and took the camera with me on a few walks around Florence. And guess what? This time the result wasn’t so bad.

A few frames were a bit overexposed, and I missed focus on a couple of shots, but overall the 50 mm lens was a nice surprise and so much better than the 28 mm.

Below are some of my favorite shots from the roll. I will definitely give this camera a second chance - but only with the 50 mm lens.

Do you have an old Praktica camera? What do you think about it?

Ps: On a funny side note I just recently realized, that my Praktica LTL is the exact same camera, which Tereza (played by Juliette Binoche) uses in one of my all time favorite movies The unbearable lightness of being. Just take a look here.