Praktica PD-600 (1997)
Today I received some photos of yet another, previously unknown Praktica digital camera. This apparently was a year before Pentacon Dresden was manufacturing the Praktica digital cameras. The source wants to remain anonymous, I respect that. Again this digital camera was only sold in the UK. Since there has been no websites mentioning these digital cameras and only few advertisements have been published, it was sheer impossible to re-discover this camera today. Again it was an OEM model, made by Premier Imaging Technology, and marketed under their house brand Pretec DC-600, aka AOL PhotoCam. So this now was Praktica's second digital camera into the market, before Pentacon Dresden took over and started manufacturing the QD-500. The PD-600 was sold in the UK for £280.
Only two sources mention this digital camera (and I missed both of them!), the Liverpool and Manchester Photographic Journal and the The British Journal of Photography. So yes, this not only proves my theory that those cameras were intended for the UK market but it might be worth investigating what other digital cameras were marketed there under the brand Praktica. I am thinking of the "usual suspects" like model names DC-300, DC-800 or even DC-1500, all very plausible possibilities.
On a footnote, if you take this camera apart, you can clearly see the mainboard and other components and one of the circuits is labeled "Pretec DC-6 SW1", a clear indicator that the OEM basis model was the Pretec DC-600 and the camera's software version 1.
All images donated by anonymous source to © digitalkameramuseum.de
Specifications
- Brand: Praktica
- Model: PD-600
- First mentioned: 1997
- Marketed: yes in the UK
- MSRP: £280
- Imager Type: 0.35MP 1/4" CCD
- Resolution: 640x480
- Internal Storage: 2MB
- External Storage: Compact Flash
- Lens: f=4.0, 5mm macro lens
- Shutter: 1/30s to 1/10,000s
- Aperture Range: F4.0
- LCD screen size: 1.8" TFT
- Size: 129 x 68 x 48mm
- Weight: 320 gr.
- Remarks: -

