Exakta RTL1000 (1969–1973)

Name: Exakta RTL1000
Brand: Exakta

Dresden's last genuine Exakta wears a Praktica's suit - and that's exactly what makes it interesting.

Overview

The Exakta RTL1000 is a 35mm eye-level single-lens reflex camera built by VEB Pentacon in Dresden between 1969 and 1973. It arrived after the Exakta business had been folded into the Pentacon combine. Pentacon's Herbert Scholtze designed it alongside the Praktica L-series, which explains a great deal about how it looks and feels. The RTL1000 shared a boxed, modern body with its Praktica siblings, and owners have been arguing about that ever since. One widely-quoted line sums up the tension: "Exactly an Exakta, but practically a Praktica."

The mount is what separates it from the Praktica it resembles. The RTL1000 kept the Exakta bayonet mount, modified to support automatic diaphragm lenses, so it keeps the world-renowned quick-change bayonet that had defined the brand since the 1930s. The mount combines the basic idea of the 1936 Exakta design (a simple internal bayonet) with an external bayonet and an aperture stop-down pin. It also has an auto diaphragm mechanism that lets you use the new "internal release" automatic lenses. If you have a drawer full of Exakta glass, that compatibility is the whole point.

Metering is through-the-lens, built into the interchangeable TTL meter. It is coupled to shutter speeds and measures the entire focusing screen at shooting aperture. The camera takes standard 35mm miniature film in commercial cassettes of 12, 20, or 36 exposures, producing 24mm × 36mm negatives. It is a German camera, and one collector's site draws a hard line between the RTL1000 and the Petri-made Exakta models (the TL500, TL1000, and Twin TL) that "dishonored" the nameplate. The RTL1000, by contrast, "is a genuine, made in Dresden, camera."

Key Features

Exakta Bayonet Mount, Modified for Auto Diaphragm Lenses

The RTL1000 kept the Exakta bayonet but reworked it to support automatic diaphragm lenses, adding an external bayonet and an aperture stop-down pin to the basic internal bayonet layout. Lenses change quickly, the diaphragm stops down when you fire, and the older Exakta optics remain usable. That keeps the camera in the hands of brand loyalists.

Interchangeable TTL Meter Coupled to Shutter Speeds

The metered prism is a through-the-lens unit that measures the whole focusing screen at shooting aperture, and it is coupled to shutter speeds. A push button handles film-sensitivity setting. Up top it behaves like a modern TTL SLR, while the rest of the body stays mechanical. Because the prism is interchangeable, the camera can be run with a plain pentaprism or a waist-level finder when the metered head isn't wanted.

Vertical Metal Focal-Plane Shutter

A vertical metal focal-plane shutter handles exposure, with a maximum shutter speed of 1/1000 second and a flash sync speed of 1/125 second. A separate slow shutter speed setting knob covers 2 seconds to 8 seconds. The vertical metal design was a step away from the cloth curtains of earlier Exaktas and, in principle, a more durable arrangement.

Compact Boxed Body Shared with the Praktica L-Series

The RTL1000 measures 5 5/8 inches long, 4 3/8 inches high, and 3 5/8 inches deep from the front of the lens to the camera back. It is a compact, squared-off SLR, nothing like the trapezoidal Exaktas of the 1950s. It weighs 2 lb. The reflex image is always parallax-free, as you'd expect from an SLR, and the viewfinder is a pentaprism of the interchangeable type. The shape is the most divisive thing about the camera. One YouTube description calls it "visually one of the most unusual (or bizarre) camera designs," though the source text cuts off before explaining which element earned that label.

Marking Variations

Collectors note that the RTL1000 was produced with marking variations, and some examples left the factory without the Exakta branding at all. That makes a "correct" example harder to define than the short production run would suggest. Keep it in mind before paying a premium for a particular faceplate.

Historical Context

The RTL1000's four-year production run, 1969 to 1973, ended the same year that Exakta production in Dresden definitively stopped. The Exa cameras continued for a while afterward, but the Exakta line itself was finished. East Germany was certainly keen to get the RTL1000 into consumer markets west of the Berlin Wall, and the camera was common enough in Western Europe during those four years. It could not hold the line against the Japanese. The later Exakta models were part of a decline driven by East German state management combined with relentless competition from Japanese manufacturers who had learned from, and improved upon, the original Exakta design.

The verdict from the period and after has been consistent, if unkind: the RTL1000 is remembered as competent but uninspired. It was a sensible, well-made camera arriving in a market that had moved on to open-aperture metering and broader lens ecosystems. Its Praktica-derived body did it no favors with buyers who remembered what an Exakta used to look like.

Collectibility & Value

The RTL1000 is a modest collectible. Listings turn up on eBay and at specialist dealers: bodies, complete cameras with the Meyer-Optik Oreston 50mm f/1.8, and the original 36-page instruction manual, which is available in English. Specific current market prices weren't documented in the sources consulted, so treat any figure you see as a snapshot rather than a benchmark.

On condition, one seller's listing reads: "The shutter speeds of this camera have been verified and are accurate. The light seals are in good condition." The second sentence is the useful one. Light seals are a wear point on a camera of this age. Documented repair information for the RTL1000 is thin, and no common failure modes or service procedures turned up in the research, so a buyer should budget for a general inspection rather than expect a known-issues list.

The strongest argument for the RTL1000 as a user rather than a display piece is the mount. It's a genuine Dresden Exakta, it takes Exakta bayonet glass with automatic diaphragm support, and it meters through the lens.

Market Value

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ EXAKTA RTL1000                                                  Nov 2026 │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ High      $97                                     Latest             $59 │
│ Median    $73                                     Trend                — │
│ Low       $58                                     Volume           ~2/mo │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   $100 ┤                                                                 │
│        │             .                                                   │
│        │                                                                 │
│    $79 ┤                                                                 │
│        │. . .                                                            │
│        │                                                                 │
│        │                                          .                     .│
│    $50 ┤                                                                 │
│        ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
│    vol │█ █ █        █                            █                     █│
│        └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────│
│         2026-05                      2026-06                      2026-07│
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

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