2026-06-04 Praktica MTL-5 Camera

Today I haven’t access to the internet, so I am going to just ramble about this Praktica MTL-5. I was offered a chance to wade through a tote full of cameras and this camera stood out to me. I thought I had already collected at least one of them.
It turned out I have at least three of them. I already have a LTL-3, a MTL-3, and two MTL-5 cameras. One of the MTL-5's I already had has a stuck aperture. I had already featured the LTL-3 in the cover story of Issue 12 of AllPhotography back in 2003.
From what I remember of reading on the internet the Praktica MTL-5 was the European equivalent of North America’s Pentax Spotmatic K1000 for all students taking photography courses.

Both cameras had—

behind the lens meters
match needle exposure control
rapid advance levers
hot shoes

   The MTL-5 uses thread mount lenses as opposed to the Pentax K- bayonet mount. The MTL-5 also has stop down metering, using a lever on the front just above the front-angled shutter release. The MTL-5 has a self-timer, which the K1000 does not.
   The MTL-5 also has a semi-rapid film loading system you have to experience to have any faith in. That isn’t a criticism in that the MTL-5 will work, and work well, but just seems a trifle noisy and “rough” compared to any Japanese product.
   True to form, the new MTL-5 worked fine the day I dusted it off, but by the next day the lens stopped shutting down when the shutter was fired. It started to work again with some repetition of winding and firing but it does raise questions about trust it will continue to work.

As I remember too this camera uses the banned PX-625 battery, while a later model (the MTL-5B) uses a still available pair of batteries. There are work arounds for the banned battery—and the battery is only used for the meter—so the camera is still quite usable.
Accessing the internet today I can add the MTL-5 was made from 1983 to 1985.

In that time they made 574,000 of them.

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