The Praktica Book by R. Rossing

[Stevenson Gawen]

Somehow, this is one of my favorite photography books.
I've never owned a Praktica, and when I got the book I had never developed film, yet this book is such an interesting mixture of very period approaches and classic cameras, with some remarkably timeless images.
I love some of the plates in this book. Some are so much of their time, to me, as to be slightly cringe worthy, but most are just great photos.
My copy is the 5th edition, translated to English by K. S. Ankersmit. The translation has somehow left a good deal of German flavour in it!

I'm not sure of the copyright status of this book. I'm pretty sure here in Australia it's alright to share work for purposes of research, study and criticism or review, which I think this is.
Hope this is OK to do here, as I thought you might all find it rather interesting. This is a slightly random selection of plates and the adjoining pages.

 

[Brian Moore]

That looks a great book. Thanks for posting it.

 

[Stevenson Gawen]

 

[Ralph Turner]

Great book, Steve. I've not seen that one, but I have one or two not unlike it. One of them discusses Russian kit and how to get the best from it, published by Technical & Optical Equipment (London) Ltd. Like yours, it's very much of it's era in terms of the photos used within, but it's a great little book, of some historic interest. I have to admit, I rather like the look that the relatively limited print quality (compared to modern publications), it has it's own appeal. Thanks for sharing those plates from yours.

 

[Gary R. Smith]

I recently picked up a 6 pound copy of the 12th edition of McKeown's Camera Guide. I've written something up for Hamish to post of 35mmc (we'll see how long that takes). While it was intended to be a collector's price guide (and is sorely out of date as far as prices go) it does have quite a few cameras (40,000) with manufacture commentary on those from significant makers.

 

[Ralph Turner]

I've heard many an online reference to McKeown's but never seen a copy until now. I had a quich poke around on the web and came across the link below. Looks like the author's been busy over the last 20 years since this (the most current) edition..

MCK Camera

mckcamera.com

 

[Gary R. Smith]

I've heard many an online reference to McKeown's

But that link doesn't suggest that there is a current online edition. I've responded to the questionnaire and haven't heard anything back. I suspect that James McKeown has passed and that his wife Joan spoke with lawyers about how to move forward and thereby did some minimal investigation re: continuing the brand but either lost interest, couldn't find anyone to do the work of updating the selling prices or passed herself leaving the whole affair in Limbo. It does suggest there was consideration of a printed 4-volume set covering 100,000 cameras however if one exists, I can't find it.

 

[Ralph Turner]

Ah, ok. I wasn't sure quite what to think with this. It'd be good, but there's not much to go on. The date at the bottom of the page is this year, but I'm not sure if that means much. I suspect you're right and that it's all just sadly ground to a halt.