Thoughts on two cameras . . .

[j.lukow]

I'll start my commenting that people have different tastes and should I say biases in regards to cameras.

Thanks to Larry I'm now in possession of a second M42 camera ( Thanks again!) a Yashica TL Electro X ( ) and my other one gotten from Attila is a Praktica PLC2. Through usage I'll discover if I like one more than the other or if I've caught the collecting bug.

Now to my question. . .
The biggest difference I find between the two is the DOF. The Yashica like my Minoltas has the DOF (Yashica calls it the exposure check lever) control on the camera. The Praktica's is on the lens. I can't say how often I use it - but on the Yashica it will be lots- cause this is how you trigger the TTL metering, on the Praktica like my Minoltas a gentle touch of the shutter does it. If I'm going to build a collection of M42 lenses am I going to have grief? How many lenses are like my Meyer G. and have the DOF button on the lens opposed to ones like the Auto Yashinon DX ? How does this relate to German and Russian lenses?

Thanks in advance for any thoughts or advice.
Jim

[luisalegria]

I may be completely wrong here, but it seems to me that your Yashica just has a servo that presses the M42 lens diaphragm pin (this closes the diaphragm to the set aperture on any "automatic" M42 lens) to do the meter/exposure check.

On an all-mechanical camera the shutter mechanism presses the pin when you trip the shutter.

If thats what your Yashica is doing, then any "automatic" M42 lens - any lens with a pin - will work.

Older manual lenses or pre-set lenses have no pins and you will not have this function.

Many lenses have some sort of auto-manual setting on the lens, and some - like a couple of Sigmas I have, and all the Soligors with T-4 mounts, and for all I know plenty of others - have a check wheel or a check lever or check button in addition to the pin. You press the button or whatever to stop down the lens to meter, and when you release it it opens up again. I don't like these; I prefer the auto-manual setting like on the Takumars. When I want it manual I want it to stay manual.

[peterqd]

I dfon't know anything about the Yashica camera, but I can tell you a little about the Praktica PLC2 as I have one too.

The camera itself has no means of checking DOF. It's designed to use the "electric" lenses with A-M switch and contact pins which tell the camera the lens aperture setting. With the lens switch set on A and the the switch under the rewind knob set to the solid circle mark, the camera will meter the exposure without stopping down, depending on the shutter speed setting, when you partially press the shutter release. The aperture only closes when the shutter fires, operated by the pusher inside the camera mount and the pin in the lens.

If you want to check the DOF on this camera you need to set the lens on M and the camera switch to the open circle and use stop-down metering. This is also what you have to do if you're using any other type of M42 lens without the contact pins.

The older Prakticas (like my Nova 1B for example) close the aperture by partially pressing the shutter release as you describe, but this was discontinued in the later models because it's possible to release the button and open the aperture fully before the shutter has completed its travel.

[j.lukow]

[Juanma]