Originally posted by manntax Really nice review focused on user experience and backed up with some great shots - well done !! I really like that you got 39 exp out of this roll - pretty impressive, considering that the best I ever got was 38 exp with my Kiev which is having very thin gaps between the frames. I also like the shots, considering they were taken with their budget lens I have to say that what once was budget back in 70-80's , today would carry pretty hefty premium price tag indeed !
Looking at this Praktica , how simple and unrefined it is, yet how reliably can deliver 39 fine exposures , I have to say that today's photography market is really far from what it once was...
BTW I don't think I ever shot this XP2 film - it is C41 isn't it ? How does it compare to say HP5+ ? Or even better - how does it compare to that Kodak BW 400 Neopan film they once had ( not sure if they still have it ).
Also It is hard to tell from the shots linked due to small resolution , but how is grain and other aspects of it ??
And some older shots for the thread, Kodak TMax 400, Pentax ME Super , which died not long after that roll was shot - apparently something electrical related so meter became dead.
To be honest, the MTL50 is not unrefined, it feels cheaply built, but it has some features that are at least interesting and well thought, like the quickloader, the kind of arrow inside the viewfinder that informs you when you have advanced the film and you're ready to shoot (indeed a great feature! I couldn't believed it was so handy), the position of the stop down lever and shutter release. Older and more expensive models also had the interesting "electric" open aperture metering, a quite smart way to circumvent the main problem of the M42 lenses, stopping down.
If you are in the UK and you want something more refined, I suggest to look for the BC1 and BX20, these models are equivalent to the ME Super (aperture priority, leds etc... the BX20 also has TTL flash), they come out cheap, about 20 pounds and some of them are brand new.
The grain is basically invisible as you can see, here there are other shots I've taken with it:
https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/122-lens-clubs/250453-east-german-lens-club-9.html
Unfortunately the scans are relatively small but I'm pretty surprised by the performance of the Pentacon Nifty Fifty, on the net it is described as the poor man's Praktica lens (while the Pancolar is quite appreciated) and they say it's soft wide open and even at f4 or so.
For the film, XP2 is far from ideal, without filter looks pretty washed out, with a yellow or YG filter it takes a strange cast and becomes quite contrasty. When BW400CN was available that was my first choice, now I take XP2 for test films because it's cheap and readily available. Neopan 400 C-41 can be procured on ebay, it's not cheap and very contrasty, I find it difficult to use but it's better than XP2. Unfortunately I can't process real B&W so the rare times I use it I send it to Ilfordlab, they are good but not cheap.
Some examples of films I have experience with:
I think I didn't publish this one: MTL50, Pentacon, XP2 and a Pentax Y2 filter.
K2DMD, K50 mm f1.4, Neopan C-41, no filter. Notice how contrasty it is, the highlights on the upper left corner are completely overexposed and the jacket of the painter looks almost black but if I recall correctly it was medium blue. Still a good film.
K1000, K55 mm f2.0, HP5+, no filter: notice the grain. If I want to have grain Neopan is my choice.
Nikon FM, Nikkor 50 mm f1.4, BW400CN, no filter: this was my thing...I loved this film, the finest grain I've ever seen,beautiful pallette of greys, could manage a lot of overexposure.
Canon F-1N, FDn 50mm f1.2, Delta 400, no filter: my favourite true B&W: fine grain, cooler grays than BW400CN, if developed correctly it gives good results.
I also have some shots of T-Max and Kentmere, somewhere, not here at the moment.