This fell out of some-one' attic during a house move, a few decades ago;
Gifted to me for my help shifting boxes, as they didn't really know how to use it; along with a meter-less Zenit. It prompted me to build up an all prime 'period' outfit around it; rummaging through the bargain bins for interesting M42 lenses in the camera shops when I popped in for film...
A Practika ML I think, came along in a 'lucky-dip' box, for a tenner, and I think there was another Practika that popped up along the way.
I have to say I did NOT get on with the Practika's; one of them had a TTL meter, but the shutter release was on the side of the lens & I hated the handling.
T'owld man, kept trying to bequeath me his Pentax Spotty... which I have to confess, was wasted on me; I think that it was 'the' camera to aspire to when he was a struggling student, but twenty year on, I just didn't appreciate the hype about it.
That, Sigma, however is a 'keeper'. Its actually a Japan made Richoch 'derviative' from the now famouse lens-maker; all metal, all clock-work; metal leaf focal plane shutter, fully manual, with uncoupled TT, CWA swing-needle in the view-finder; meter switch on the side of the mirror housing 'stops down' auto-lenses to meter; its a real joy to handle. Battery is only used by the meter, so if flat, camera still 'works'.. you just have to f16-sunny-emate.. though in quarter of a century, that has only been required once! Current drain is tiny, and only for as long as you hold the meter witch down! Takes mushroom cell, which isn't so common; but not unobtainable by far, and on the one occasion it flatted on my, I was slightly astonished to find one on the shelf in the little provincial Chemists in the village in Somerset I was camping in! That battery was replaced about five years ago with one bought of e-bay, easily enough.
I was actually offered a brand new Sigma Auto-Focus SLR in straight swap or that camera, by the Sigma rep, bout twenty odd years ago; as he had never seen one, and his director, and the advertising hype of the time, insisted that the (then new) AF Sigma was their 'first' SLR camera, which this denied! Quite glad I refused actually.... although, googling in the modern era reveals that it isn't as rare as presumed; There were a number of Richoch clones, copies and derivatives, and apparently Sigma made quite a few of them, but like a lot of their lenses of the era, they were sold under other brand-names; this badged as a Sigma MK1, though was apparently the only one they put their own name to, and most were sold in the US, where they are apparently worth about $40.. But begs suggestion that with a little e-bay browsng and cross referencing you could find one of the more obscure re-branded versions quite cheaply.
Meanwhile, the Zenit......Practika's... were a bit of a bad penny! I kept trying to give them away, but some-how always seemed to end up with them back! However, the Zenit? In a similar manner; I found it some-what 'cumbersome' when I first tried it; and so gave it to my Grandad, who better appreciated it... before it found its way back to me after he died! Which gave me some sentimental reason to give it a second chance, and I have to say... fully manual, completely clock-work, and clunky as heck! It has sort of grown on me! I don't even 'miss' the meter that much on it any-more.. still manages to catch me out and graze my knuckles on the rather sharp strap buckles.... but curiously I sort of forgive it! There is something very unpretentious about it, the laboriousness it demands becomes part of the charm... M42 and back-to-basics, the Zenit IS about as basic as they come! Give it a chance, you never know, you may find the charm in them.
