by TRA
The History of the Pentacon Six
The Exakta 66 Mk III
Dates: 1997-2000
Who made it?
The Exakta 66 “Mk I” and Mk II had been “third party” modifications of the Pentacon Six, involving various companies and co-ordinated in West Germany. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, followed in 1990 by collapse of communism in the former GDR, the “two Germanies” were re-united. Pentacon was split up and privatised. Some parts of it came under the control of Heinrich Mandermann, the head of Exakta GmbH, which had produced the Exakta 66. Thereafter, it would appear that at least some of the Mk II version cameras and probably all of the Mk III version cameras were produced by the new Pentacon GmbH company, which was no longer producing the original Pentacon Six TL. It could therefore be considered that some of the Exakta 66 MK II and all of the Mk III cameras were not “third party” modifications, but products of a re-constituted Pentacon and some of its original staff.
Features
The Mk III added a mirror pre-release to the Mk II.
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Mk III cameras are labelled “MOD 3” on the advance lever,
and the cable release socket for the mirror pre-release is visible
on the back of the camera, just below the wind lever.
The camera in this picture is a Mk I that has been upgraded to Mk III
specification.
Original Mk III cameras were labelled “MADE IN GERMANY” and during
the upgrading process for Mk I cameras,
a new country of origin label was normally stuck over the original
“MADE IN WEST GERMANY” designation – but not in this case.
To find more information on mirror pre-release on the
Exakta 66 & Pentacon Six, click here.
To go to the Bibliography, click here.
To go on to the next section, click below.
29 The Kiev 6C
To go to the beginning of the history section, click here.
To go to introduction to the cameras, click here.
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© TRA June 2010, October 2010