Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Pentacon Six

Pentacon · Pentacon Six mount · 6×6cm on 120 or 220 roll film, 56 × 56mm per German Wikipedia; the film runs horizontally, left to right, where most 6×6 reflexes run it top to bottom (camera-wiki) · 1966

Known as “P6”

Also known as: Pentacon Six · Pentacon 6 · Pentacon-Six · Pentacon Six TL · Pentacon 6 TL · Pentacon 6TL · Pentacon SixTL · Pentacon Six TL Italia · Hanimex Praktica 66 · Praktica 66 · Hanimex 66 · Пентакон Сикс

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Pentacon Six (before TL) Pentacon Six 1966–1969 1118–23859, the earliest and latest Pentacon Six (non-TL) serials known to TRA, who also records no. 32649, a body he places in 1970, with a left-over plain front plate —
Pentacon Six TL Pentacon Six 1969–1990 12794–206478, the earliest and latest TL serials known to TRA, who doubts the earliest because of re-plated bodies
202033, a body Kröger dates to August 1989 		—
Pentacon Six TL, US export ('MADE IN GERMANY (EAST)', X and FP sockets) Pentacon Six — — —
Hanimex Praktica 66 Pentacon Six 1968–1970 20433–22980, the lowest and highest known to TRA; also 20454, 20552, 20566 —
Pentacon Six TL Italia Pentacon Six — — —
Pentacon Six TL-M (microscope camera) Pentacon Six — — —
Pentacon Six TLs (Czechoslovak police ID conversion) Pentacon Six 1984 168272–175314, the known range; TRA puts the base bodies in 1983 and 1984 —
  1. Production: Hummel's yearly figures, from the official GDR statistical yearbook, run 3,500 (1967), 9,100 (1968), 10,000 (1969), a peak of 12,774 (1979) and 3,100 (1990). From late 1966 to 1990 they total about 203,000 Pentacon Six-type bodies, including the TL, Pentacon Six m, Hanimex, TLs and TL-M cameras and the bodies sent west to become the Exakta 66. Hummel calls his figures approximate; one collector quoted by TRA thinks they agree with the serials to within 1.5%, another thinks the yearbooks were embellished. The serials themselves reached about 206–207 thousand, which is a top number, not a production count. Ludwig Hagelstein's 'around 250,000' has no stated basis.
  2. Pentacon Six m: TRA, citing a book he calls 'Fifty Years' (p. 35), describes a TL slightly modified by Zeiss for a joint USSR–GDR crewed space mission in 1968, with the Flektogon 50 and Sonnar 180, and Jehmlich records a TL taken to the Soviet space station in August 1978; TRA dates the camera 1968–1978. No surviving example or serial is described, so it is not a variant here.
  3. Swiss export decals: TRA records one Pentacon Six and one Praktisix IIa with 'SP F Switzerland' decals. Too few to be a variant.
  4. English Wikipedia gives 1.7kg for the Pentacon Six TL without saying what is fitted; no other source consulted gives a body weight or dimensions, so both fields are left empty.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • 'Pentacon six' on the front plate = 1966–69 body; 'TL' under it on a separate line = early TL; 'Pentacon six TL' on one line = later TL (TRA). Re-plated bodies exist, so check the serial
  • Bright breech-lock ring = before about 1972; black = later (TRA)
  • Smooth release button and no leatherette disc on the base = last series, 1987 or 1989–90 (TRA)
  • X and FP sockets and MADE IN GERMANY (EAST) = US export or Hanimex body (TRA)
  • Shape, lever wind on the right and front release are shared with the Praktisix; a Praktisix has a counter-reset button and no 220 switch, and the IIA already has the pull-out spool locks (TRA; Kröger; German Wikipedia). An Exakta 66 is rubber-covered and badged Exakta; a Kiev-6S or Kiev-60 is badged Kiev or Arax

Pentacon Six (before TL):

  • Front plate reads 'Pentacon six' with no 'TL' (TRA)
  • A punch mark beside the serial number on bodies below no. 16,000; the factory dropped it because the Pentacon Six restarted the serial count of the Praktisix and numbers were duplicated (Kröger, from Pentacon's change notice of 10 July 1970)
  • Against the earlier Praktisixes: frame counter under a larger, flatter Perspex window, film-type and speed reminder dials on the shutter-speed knob and advance lever rather than the back, black-anodised back screws, no X beside the flash socket, and a locking nut for the sync cable (TRA). German Wikipedia says the Praktisix IIA already had the Pentacon Six's flash socket and frame counter, so check the name plate
  • 220 switch under the advance lever, and the counter resets itself when the back is opened (camera-wiki; TRA)

Pentacon Six TL:

  • 'TL' on the front plate, engraved from serial 15,500 (Kröger, from the 1970 change notice): on early bodies 'TL' sits on a separate line under 'six' on the old plate, later plates have 'Pentacon six TL' on one line (TRA)
  • Black lens breech-lock ring on the body from about 1972; earlier rings are bright (TRA)
  • Opening in the base over the pre-wind mechanism, for servicing, on bodies built after 9 July 1979 (Kröger)
  • Coarse-grained leatherette in the 1980s (Kröger)
  • Last series: shutter release with a smooth face instead of concentric rings (the 'Glattknopf') and a bare metal base plate with no black leatherette disc. TRA's TL page dates this from about 1987, his dating page to 1989–90

Pentacon Six TL, US export ('MADE IN GERMANY (EAST)', X and FP sockets):

  • Two flash sockets under the throat, X on the left and FP on the right; the ordinary body has one (TRA)
  • Body and lens labelled MADE IN GERMANY (EAST) (TRA)
  • A second name ring screwed over the lens's own, reading 'Bm 1:2.8 f-80 … aus Jena' in place of 'Biometar … Carl Zeiss Jena' (TRA)
  • Most often seen with the early 'low TL' front plate, TL on a line of its own (a collector quoted by TRA)

Hanimex Praktica 66:

  • HANIMEX PRAKTICA 66 name in place of Pentacon six (TRA)
  • Always two flash sockets, X and FP (TRA)
  • Body labelled MADE IN GERMANY (EAST); the lens carries the export ring with 'Bm' for Biometar and 'aus JENA' for Carl Zeiss Jena (TRA)

Pentacon Six TL Italia:

  • Blue Pentacon logo with ITALIA PENTACON ITALIA on the lower right of the front, seen from the front (TRA)
  • Distributor's guarantee sticker in the left-hand spool chamber, which dates the sale (TRA)

Pentacon Six TL-M (microscope camera):

  • No viewfinder and no mirror: a fixed camera for a microscope, so not a reflex at all (TRA)
  • TRA's example has warranty papers dated 07/87 and the smooth release button

Pentacon Six TLs (Czechoslovak police ID conversion):

  • Film wound by a knob, black or chrome, under the take-up chamber; the lever only cocks the shutter and stops after 18 strokes (TRA)
  • Red window in the back with a hole in the pressure plate, and a new frame counter with a red section (TRA)
  • Reduced film gate and a focusing screen masked at the sides with horizontal lines and a broken centre line (TRA)
  • Supplied with a three-frame contact-printing mask (TRA)

Serial-range notes

501–740 (1966) … 204574–207735 (1990)
TRA's reconstruction from Hummel's yearly production figures plus 2% for rejects, starting at a "probably 501" he assumes from reports of a body in the five hundreds: 741–4310 in 1967, 4311–13592 in 1968, 13593–23792 in 1969, 23793–35581 in 1970, 126809–139837 in 1979, 196190–200004 in 1988, 200005–204573 in 1989. He gives it as accurate to about one year. East German serials do not encode the year, unlike Arsenal's.
15,500 · 16,000 · 25,300
From Pentacon's change notice of 10 July 1970, via Kröger: 'TL' engraved from 15,500; the punch mark beside the serial dropped from 16,000; shutter gears 92 and 93 cut from 46 to 45 teeth from 25,300. Bodies from 13,000 to 15,500 already had steel bushes and could take the new spacing ratchet directly; earlier ones needed the whole gear train changed.
200,000 · 200,8xx · 202,033
Hummel says the 200,000th camera of the type left the factory in November 1988; TRA has evidence of a 200,8xx TL on sale new in an East German shop in May 1989; Kröger dates 202,033 to August 1989. The highest serials are in the 206 or 207 thousands.

Specifications

Format
6×6cm on 120 or 220 roll film, 56 × 56mm per German Wikipedia; the film runs horizontally, left to right, where most 6×6 reflexes run it top to bottom (camera-wiki) · 12 on 120, 24 on 220; owners who load tightly report a 13th frame on 120 (camera-wiki; Ludwig Hagelstein) exposures
Finder (waist-level)
folding waist-level finder with flip-up cover, standard equipment (English Wikipedia); image reversed left to right (davidde)
Finder (eye-level)
interchangeable plain pentaprism, or TTL metering prism (1968), uncoupled, CdS (English Wikipedia; Kröger)
Shutter
rubberised cloth focal plane, two curtains (Al Kattintotta; davidde) · 1s–1/1000, B · flash sync 1/30 per camera-wiki and Al Kattintotta; 1/25 per English Wikipedia and davidde; one PC socket (two on US export bodies); no accessory shoe on the body
Film advance
single-stroke lever, which cocks the shutter and resets the mirror; the toothed measuring roller stops the film after about 64mm. Let the lever return gently, not snap back, or spacing goes wrong (Kröger; camera-wiki; davidde)
Back
hinged back; no interchangeable magazines (camera-wiki; TRA)
Meter
none in the body; uncoupled CdS meter in the optional TTL prism
Designed by
Siegfried Böhm — designer of the Praktisix of 1956, on which the Pentacon Six is built (Kröger; German Wikipedia says he took part in its development) · Hans-Joachim Daeche — responsible for the second production state of 10 October 1966 (Kröger) · Günter Heerklotz — fixed the third production state of 1 January 1971 (Kröger) · Rolf Jurenz and Werner Tränkner — inventors of the light-concentrator TTL metering, DD patent 58,002 (Kröger)
Country
East Germany (GDR)
Original price
750 M (GDR marks) list price (EVP) for the body with waist-level finder, unchanged for over twenty years according to Kröger; the 1974 list gives 750 M for the TL body and 995 M with the Biometar 2,8/80. Kröger gives the industrial price behind the 750 M as 558.90 M. In the United States, davidde found the camera advertised by dealers in the early 1970s with a standard lens and case "often for around $199 or less". A 1988 body sold new in January 1989 with four lenses for 3,357 DM (West German marks), a single retail sale reported by Ludwig Hagelstein.
Accessories
Waist-level finder; plain pentaprism; TTL metering prism (1968) with an add-on accessory shoe; magnifying hood ('chimney') and angle finder (davidde; German Wikipedia) · Fresnel field lens, an option that TRA says made the screen four times brighter; aftermarket plastic screens by Arsenal and Chinese makers (davidde) · Bellows, extension tubes, focusing magnifier, tripod accessory mount (davidde) · Adapters for the Kiev-60 TTL prism and waist-level finder (English Wikipedia; davidde) · Frame-spacing modification by Baier Fototechnik (camera-wiki); mirror pre-release upgrade, which cannot be done on a Praktisix (TRA)

The TTL prism reads a sharply limited spot through a light concentrator, patent DD 58,002 of 8 July 1966 by Rolf Jurenz and Werner Tränkner; the meter was never coupled to the shutter speed (Kröger). It takes a 1.35V PX625 mercury cell (English Wikipedia). davidde finds both Pentacon prisms dim and short of full screen coverage, and the Kiev-60 prism, fitted with an adapter, brighter and fuller; English Wikipedia says the same of the adapted Kiev-60 prism and waist-level finder.

Where sources disagree

Year
  • 1966 — Kröger (production state of 20 September 1966, name at the 1966 Leipzig Autumn Fair); TRA's serial table; English and German Wikipedia; camera-wiki
  • 1967 — TRA's dating page

Better supported: 1966

Both TRA dates are his: the serial table assumes 235 Pentacon Sixes were built at the end of 1966.

Last
  • 1990 — TRA ('the last Pentacon Sixes were apparently produced in 1990'); German Wikipedia (Pentacon's liquidation in 1990); Hummel's last production year
  • 1991 — Zach Horton, writing of the Zeiss lenses: 'All production ended in 1991 when Pentacon was liquidated'
  • 1992 — English Wikipedia

Better supported: 1990

First
  • 1968 — TRA's dating page; camera-wiki; davidde (the prism and the renaming)
  • 1969 — TRA's TL page; German Wikipedia; serial 15,500, where Kröger has 'TL' begin, falls in 1969 in TRA's table

Better supported: 1969

The prism was available from 1968; the engraving followed in 1969.

Serial notes (first Pentacon Six serial)
  • probably 501 — TRA, an assumption from reports of a body numbered in the five hundreds
  • about 1001 — implied by Kröger, who calls no. 1251 'the 250th or 251st camera'

Neither cites a factory record; the earliest serial TRA has seen is 1118.

Flash sync
  • 1/30 — camera-wiki; Al Kattintotta
  • 1/25 — English Wikipedia; davidde

On the Exakta 66 Mod. 2 TRA found the '30' mark sits where the flash symbol was and the real sync is 1/25; no source consulted measured a Pentacon Six.

What reviewers say

History

The Pentacon Six is the Praktisix with its film transport rebuilt. Siegfried Böhm’s 6×6 reflex of 1956 had the shape of a large 35mm SLR, a cloth focal-plane shutter running from one second to 1/1000, a lever wind, a front release and a breech-lock lens mount whose lenses stopped down automatically. Its weakness was spacing: the frame length depended on the counter, so a counter left unreset after loading meant overlapping frames. The redesign that Marco Kröger dates to 20 September 1966 measured the film with a toothed roller instead, reset the counter when the back was opened, stopped after frame 12 or 24, and so took 220 film. The shutter stayed as it was. The new name, given at the Leipzig Autumn Fair of 1966, was meant, in Walter Hennig’s words there, to mark the camera’s origin more clearly than before. TRA’s dating page says 1967, but his serial table and Kröger both start in 1966.

In 1968 Pentacon launched a TTL metering prism. It measured a small spot through a light concentrator (patent DD 58,002, Rolf Jurenz and Werner Tränkner) and was never coupled to the shutter speed. From serial 15,500, in 1969, the front plate was engraved TL. That was the last real change. Kröger records spacing and shutter-gear revisions to 1970, a final production state from 1 January 1971 and a service opening in the base from July 1979. After that he finds only a coarser leatherette in the 1980s. TRA adds a black breech ring from about 1972 and, on the last bodies, a smooth release button and a bare base plate. The body with waist-level finder cost 750 M (the GDR list price) for more than twenty years, and 995 M with the Biometar 80 in 1974. Hummel’s yearly figures, taken from the GDR statistical yearbooks and given as approximate, come to about 203,000 cameras from late 1966 to 1990. That total includes the bodies sent to Nuremberg to become the Exakta 66. Serials reached about 206–207 thousand. The sources end production in 1990 (TRA, German Wikipedia) or 1992 (English Wikipedia); Zach Horton ends Zeiss lens production in 1991, at Pentacon’s liquidation.

The versions are mostly badges. For the United States, where East German goods had to be relabelled and the Jena Zeiss had lost its names, Pentacon made bodies marked MADE IN GERMANY (EAST) with separate X and FP sockets. Their lenses had a ring reading ‘Bm … aus Jena’ screwed over the Biometar name. Collectors find the early ‘low TL’ version of this body fairly often in the US. From about 1968 to 1970 the same camera was sold as the Hanimex Praktica 66 through the Australian firm Hanimex, with serials from TRA’s reconstructed 1969 run. The Italian distributor applied an ITALIA PENTACON ITALIA logo, and earlier Cattaneo decals, to standard TLs. The TL-M of the late 1980s is a microscope camera with no mirror or finder. The TLs is an ID-photo conversion for the Czechoslovak police, with knob wind, a red window and a narrow gate, and TRA thinks it was converted in Czechoslovakia rather than at the factory. The Pentacon Six m space camera is known only from the literature: a book TRA cites as ‘Fifty Years’ ties it to a joint Soviet–East German mission in 1968, while Jehmlich records a TL taken to the Soviet space station in August 1978.

When identifying a body, start with the serial. The front plate alone is not reliable, because left-over plain plates went onto at least one 1970 body and independent repairers fitted a TL plate to a 1967 body, and perhaps to a 1968 one. A punch mark beside the number means a body below 16,000. Kröger records spacing changes from nos. 8,500 and 15,500 (bodies from 13,000, which already had steel bushes, could take the new ratchet directly) and new shutter gears from 25,300, and service workshops refitted many early cameras. The lens mount is the Praktisix breech-lock with a 74.1mm flange. Every Praktisix, Kiev-6S, Kiev-60 and Kiev-88CM lens fits, and the Exakta 66 Schneider lenses fit with some restrictions. Kiev lenses are marked by a letter after the name: ‘Б’, written B, is this mount. The Kiev-88 version is marked ‘В’, which is Latin V but is often written B by Western sellers, and it does not fit.

Before buying, assume the camera needs service. The three reviewers describe the same faults. Frames overlap or space unevenly if the film is loose or the lever snaps back, and old lubricant makes speeds inconsistent. The big shutter shakes the camera between one second and about 1/30. There is no mirror lock-up, no depth-of-field preview on the body (the Zeiss lenses have their own lever), no accessory shoe on the body and no strap lugs. Sync is 1/25 or 1/30, depending on the source. The original TTL prism is dim, does not show the whole screen and was designed for a mercury cell, and davidde and English Wikipedia both prefer the Kiev-60 prism on an adapter. Al Kattintotta and Ludwig Hagelstein agree on the rest: a serviced camera, loaded tightly, is a reliable route to the Zeiss Jena, Arsenal and Schneider lenses, and an unserviced one is a frustrating camera to use.

Expand Collapse

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Photographs

Pentacon Six
Pentacon Six TL — John Kahrs (Junkyard kahrs), via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)
Pentacon Six
Pentacon Six TL — Ansgar Koreng, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0 DE)

Live listings

Asking price, DKK: a median of DKK 300 across 3 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-09 (middle half DKK 250–DKK 300). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Buying from Yahoo! Auctions outside Japan. It is a domestic marketplace: sellers ship within Japan, and most will not register an overseas buyer. A proxy service bids on your behalf, receives the item and forwards it, for a fee and a wait. Buyee, Jauce and ZenMarket each accept a Yahoo auction number directly. Listed alphabetically for information — none is recommended over another, and none of these is an affiliate link.

Listings updated 2026-11-09. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Lenses for this body: Arsat PCS 55mm f/4.5 shift · MC Arsat APO 500mm f/5.6 · Biometar 120mm f/2.8 · Biometar 80mm f/2.8 (6×6, 1956 design) · Curtagon MF 60mm f/3.5 (Exakta 66) · Tele-Xenar MF 150mm f/4 (Exakta 66) · Tele-Xenar MF 250mm f/5.6 (Exakta 66) · Xenotar MF 80mm f/2.8 (Exakta 66) · Flektogon 50mm f/4 · Flektogon 65mm f/2.8 · Jupiter-36 250mm f/3.5 · Kaleinar-3 150mm f/2.8 · Mir-26 45mm f/3.5 · Mir-3 65mm f/3.5 · Mir-38 65mm f/3.5 · Mir-69 45mm f/3.5 · Orestegor / Pentacon 300mm f/4 · Orestegor / Pentacon 500mm f/5.6 · Primotar 135mm f/3.5 · Primotar 180mm f/3.5 · Primotar E 80mm f/3.5 (Praktisix) · PCS Super-Angulon 55mm f/4.5 (Rollei 6000, Exakta 66) · Variogon 75–150mm f/4.5 (6000, Exakta 66) · Sonnar 180mm f/2.8 (Olympia-Sonnar) · Sonnar 300mm f/4 (Bertele 1937 design and 1963 zebra) · MC Sonnar 300mm f/4 (1974 telephoto design) · Spiegelobjektiv 1000mm f/5.6 · Tair-33 300mm f/4.5 · Telear-4 250mm f/3.5 · Telear-5 250mm f/5.6 · Telemegor 250mm f/5.5 · Telemegor 300mm f/4.5 · Telemegor 400mm f/5.5 · Tessar 80mm f/2.8 (Praktisix) · Variogon 140-280mm f/5.6 · Vega-12 90mm f/2.8 · Vega-28 120mm f/2.8 · Volna-3 80mm f/2.8 · ZM-3 600mm f/8 mirror · Zodiak-8 30mm f/3.5 fisheye

Sources (18)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.