Q: “Hello.  I live in Italy.  I just bought a Pentacon Six TL with a Biometar MC 80mm.  First of all I want to say thank you for all the information on your web site. I think you did a marvelous job!  My question is: is it possible to use Exakta lenses on the Pentacon Six?”

A: Thank you for your e-mail.  I am glad that you find the website helpful.

Over the years there have been many cameras with the name Exakta.  Most of them were 35mm cameras, and none of the lenses for those cameras can be used on the Pentacon Six.  This mean that lenses such as the Biotar cannot be used on the Pentacon Six.  Do not confuse it with the Biometar.

There was also an Exakta medium format camera in 1939, and another one in about 1954.  None of the lenses for either of these cameras will fit the Pentacon Six.  The only lenses for an Exakta camera that can be used on the Pentacon Six are the ones that were made for the Exakta 66 of 1984 to 2000, most of them by Joseph Schneider of Bad Kreuznach in Germany, though there was also a version of the Carl Zeiss Jena Biometar in the Exakta style.

If you go to the lens data section of my website, which starts here, you will see information on probably all the lenses that were ever officially produced for the Pentacon Six.  Any other lenses that may turn up with a Pentacon Six mount were probably privately modified from a different camera mount to fit the Pentacon Six.  Such lenses are not likely to have automatic diaphragm (aperture) operation.