PrakticaM 60 AF

The Praktica M 60 AF comes out of the post-millennium hangover, when production lines wound down and unsold stock filled department-store shelves. Catalogued as a autofocus compact, it pairs the 26mm f/6.7 glass lens with a 35mm film path. A bit of background: 26mm is genuinely wide — wider than a Contax T3, a Nikon 28Ti, or almost any other fixed-lens 35mm compact ever made.

Format

35mm

Year

2003

Lens

26mm f/6.7 glass lens

Min. focus

1.5 m

Flash

Built-in auto with red-eye reduction

Battery

2× AA

The 26mm f/6.7 glass lens is on the slow side, so it rewards good light or a roll of ISO 400 — but the body shrinks accordingly into something you'll actually carry every day. On the film-availability spectrum, plain 35mm is as easy as it gets in 2026. It runs on common AA batteries — you can resurrect one on a Sunday afternoon with whatever the corner shop has in stock. The built-in flash will fire whenever the meter decides it should, so learn the override before your first night out. Minimum focus is 1.5 m, close enough for a coffee cup or a face but stops short of true macro. One thing worth knowing before you load a roll: by 2003 the Praktica name belonged to a German trading company slapping badges on Chinese OEM bodies — the actual Pentacon factory was long gone. Best for street, travel and group shots — 28mm is the reportage classic, close enough to feel in the scene without distortion.

The Praktica M 60 AF sits exactly where you want a sleeper to sit: low prices, working examples plentiful, and a spec sheet that holds up against far pricier rivals. Worth remembering: the 'glass lens' printed on the front is a genuine claim: most sub-€40 compacts of this era had shifted entirely to plastic optics.

• §126mm is genuinely wide — wider than a Contax T3, a Nikon 28Ti, or almost any other fixed-lens 35mm compact ever made.
• §2By 2003 the Praktica name belonged to a German trading company slapping badges on Chinese OEM bodies — the actual Pentacon factory was long gone.
• §3The 'glass lens' printed on the front is a genuine claim: most sub-€40 compacts of this era had shifted entirely to plastic optics.