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Two different classifications to collect Exas by Maurizio Frizziero This text was written in Italian in 1992. Apologies by the Author for the mistakes in the translation.
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The Exaktas were costing too much. A cheaper model, even if less sophisticated, could have spread the reflex philosophy beside a wider range of camera amateurs, beside the same range that, in the happier hypothesis, was still using the cameras of their fathers.
On a marketing idea (in Dresden surely antelitteram) the small little Exakta's sister was born on 1951, while Ihagee was producing the Varex VX. The new camera will be sold during the following year with a name, Exa (a puzzle game involving words: half exakta), with a clear descendance and a easy credibility. Solid, compact, simple to use, it was a useful base on which one could mount Exakta's accessories, waist level finders, rings and extension tubes, cheap or expensive lenses, filters, lens hoods... everything for a better economy of scale ( ?) ..... (in Italy we say economia di scala, that means if you produce more you can save, so you can have lower prices or higher profits). To give an idea about the importance of the small components it is enough to remember that when on the Kine Exakta's was modified the waist level finder the round lenses were not simply removed but they have been sold to a lens maker for stamp collectors. Now let us go to see which are the common things among the Exakta and the first Exa. The more evident is surely the waist level finder, removable, similar to the one, even if fixed, mounted on the first Exaktas. Even the chrome front plate is the same, even the shutter release button, even the release blocking rod after the Version 1. After some time the Exa will acquire its precise identity, it will differ from the elder sister, even if preserving, except two exceptions (Exa Ib 1977 and Exa Ic 1986) the historical bayonet mount. Nine Exas, with a fortnight of varying models, were to be born: 15 according to Aguila and Rouah (without the Ic), 15 to the Exakta Collectors Circle (with the Exa Ic). There is a difference among the two 15 versions, due to the fact that A&R pay attention to the aesthetic differences and to the small mechanic modifications too while ECC looks for gathering the variants in substantially homogeneous groups. The two classifications are however coherent above all if one thinks that, despite the cameras were produced in tenth of thousandth, the finish was always of artisan kind. In a such situation it is easy (or better, possible) to characterize the small differences among a body and another one, above all when, in each case, one can check tenths of nearly equal cameras. The Exakta Collectors Circle proceeds besides to a preliminary subdivision among cameras that, even if they have the same name, they have fundamental different characteristics: Exa and Exa I (with interchangeable wlf or prism and metal sector shutter) in the first group and the Exa II (with fixed prism and vertical motion cloth focal-plane shutter) in the second group. Let us then start this classification that will extend to propose all the known models, highlighting the small variations that I will go to compare on the cameras I have in my collection. When possible I will adopt the Aguila and Rouah system (A&R), with which I have ordered my collection. In the same time I'll point out the classification compiled by Exakta Collectors Circle (ECC) study group. Back to the articles index Back to general index To the Exa (six versions of the first model) To the other Exas (from Exa I to VX 200) Exakta Homepage or something like that since Nov 27, 1996 (The Exakta Pages have been visited 3600 times between Jun 26 and Nov 26, 1996) |
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