Pentacon Six TL

Bought, sold, bought, sold, bought, sold, bought... it's a difficult love. But love it is.

Everything you need to know about PSix has already been written about it, so I'll point you to camerapedia for historical and technical stuff and to Butkus for a manual. There's also a site dedicated to it entirely, pentaconsix.com, where you'll learn all there is and beyond. 

I have a personal history with this camera that to this day hasn't been matched by any other, so I wanna share that, so as not to be redundant with all the facts you can find linked above.

Pictured at the top is my first unit, bought from a dear friend back in 2006 maybe? I can't remember anymore. It was my first encounter with medium format and I was a bit wary of it at first. I only warmed up to it as I started shooting some portraits. That's where the MC Biometar really, I mean really shines. It's such crazy good glass with so much character and soul. The creamy softness peppered with exquisite sharpness where required --it's quite poetic in its rendering.

But I did sell it because, as I got a taste for medium format, I wanted something better. So I bought the Kowa. I quickly realized I didn't gel with it, so I went back and re-bought the very same PSix from the person I sold it to, a complete stranger in an online auction. I just messaged them (politely) asking to sell it back to me. The audacity. Lucky they didn't want it anymore.

So we stayed together for a while and I even got a 2.8/180 Sonnar (pictured) for it. But unimpressed with the very low-contrast Sonnar, I sold it again, this time for a Rollei SL66 (give or take a grand). It is technically a much better camera, no two ways about it. And I did like it. The bellows were especially fun to use. But it wasn't... well, 'it'. And there were so many other cameras to experiment with, wooing me from online auctions... Rollei had to go. And after a while, I got to missing PSix again...

Only to again sell it. I can't recall the reason why at this time. I probably wanted another new toy to play with, as usual.

Do you know, in between all these turning tides, I even had a Praktisix for a hot second, its direct predecessor. Can't remember when that happened exactly, but that bit was there.

So here we are another couple of years later and I'm back with PSix again, because apparently you can't extinguish true love. And I just can't go on without the poetic eye of Biometar.

You gotta wonder when I'll sell it again.

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