What is the cheapest used Praktica LB in the UK?

The cheapest used Praktica LB currently listed is £14.85 at eBay, based on 9 listings compared across 1 UK retailers.

How many used Praktica LB are for sale in the UK?

There are currently 9 used Praktica LB listings available across 1 UK retailers on UsedLens, updated daily.

Used Praktica LB for Sale — From £15

£14.85 Low price

£83.90 High price

9 Listings

1 Retailers

1 New this week

1 Reduced

Great for: student beginner general

Praktica's budget mechanical M42 SLR — the LB, selenium meter, manual exposure, 1972.

The Praktica LB is a 35mm film SLR built in East Germany by VEB Pentacon in Dresden, part of the L-series that replaced the earlier Nova/Pentina designs from the late 1960s onward. It sat as an affordable, no-frills body in the range, positioned below the metered LLC and LTL models, and was widely exported to the UK and Western Europe as a low-cost route into system photography during the 1970s.

It is a mechanical 35mm SLR taking M42 screw-thread lenses, with a horizontal-travel cloth focal-plane shutter covering roughly 1 second to 1/1000 plus B. The LB has a match-needle selenium-cell exposure meter that reads externally and requires no battery, so the meter and the shutter both operate without power. The pentaprism viewfinder shows a fixed focusing screen; exposure is fully manual, the photographer setting aperture and shutter speed by hand against the meter reading.

As a simple, battery-independent body the LB suits students and beginners learning manual exposure, and anyone wanting a mechanical M42 camera that keeps working regardless of cell availability. Handling is straightforward but the controls feel utilitarian, the selenium meter is less sensitive in dim light than later CdS types, and the wide M42 lens supply makes it inexpensive to build a kit around.

On the used market check the selenium meter still responds, as these cells fade or die with age and cannot be replaced easily; a dead cell leaves the camera usable but unmetered. Fire the shutter across all speeds listening for capping or a lazy second curtain, inspect the light seals and mirror-damper foam which perish on cameras of this age, and check the film advance and rewind for smoothness. Look through the prism for desilvering or foam haze, and confirm the M42 stop-down mechanism works cleanly.