Now I own some other cameras, like some with ribbed pattern and one with a black bayonet flange, bought in USA by Bruce Pick (BpickPhoto@aol.com), a serious dealer-collector whose updated list can be found at this page
As you can see, the confusion begins: A&R dates 1952 what the ECC attributes at 1950. Considering the fact that similar situations will often be repeated and that not always my bodies will coincide aesthetically with those printed on A&R's book, from the beginning we will proceed in homemanner, annotating live the situation according to the differences that we will go to compare among the two classifications and/or among the classifications and the items of my collection.


On the A&R's book you can find a lot of details on the Exas.



The top of the front plate of the Exa, version 1.
The bipolar flash sockets on the left and no cover shutter release button on the right
My higher Exa body number is 224.679, inside the range identified by A&R (200.000-235.000). This version has two bipolar flash sockets, M and X, for two different syncronizations, the first one at all speeds, the second one for electronic flash. Please look at the front plate: on the left you can see the flash sockets, on the centre the front plate, on the right the shutter release button. In these three elements are all the identification factors of this camera: it is the only one to have the two bipolar flash sockets, so you can read the M and the X on the bottom of the front plate.


The ribbed pattern (left). - The waist level finder with the locking arm (right).


This model, in confront of the following ones, has no protective cover over the shutter release button to avoid accidental clicks. This problem was solved by a small brainy arm on the left hand of the wlf, whose purpose was that of locking the button when the wlf was closed.
The protective cover, hinged on the screw nearer to the button, allows to date easily as the Exas as the Exaktas: the protection was used on the Exakta VX, version 2, during 1955, and it has been adopted immediately on the Second version of the Exa. In the same time the waist level finder was simplified: the little arm (block of the release button) was removed.
Among the characteristics of this model and of every its version there is a lever, yes a lever!, that allows to go across progressional speed ranges, from B to 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/150. There is also a inconceivable sector shutter, that has been never reused if not in a demential Ic, an anachronistic attempt of archeological retrieval happened on 1986.

On the A&R's book you can find a lot of details on the Exas.

Let us see how it works. Let us take the camera in our hands. Let us load the film, revolving the right grained knob in hourly sense. The mirror goes to 45 degrees, pushing under itself the sector shutter. When the release button is pressed the mirror returns immediately in the upper position while the sector, now free from the impact of the mirror, goes up again with the delayed programmed time. This system, with optics longer than 100 mm or in macrophoto with extension tubes or bellows, can vignet the film. Norlin Rober adds among the causes of vignetting the use of fast lenses like the Angenieux 50/1,5. Not satisfied of this information Norlin tell us also that the M and X were adopted only from 1953, while in two preceding years these letters were respectively V and E. Then he gives us another information about the way of loading the film, with the emulsion toward the exterior, on the contrary respect to the Exakta. The last Rober's difference (I have seen it buying this kind of Exa by Bruce Pick, during 1995) concerns the lens bayonet on the first Exas: according to him it was black. Before or then I'll find out if everything that has been written about the Exakta is true.
If you look at the body, often you can find, on the top or on the bottom, rarely on the sides, slightly different inscrip-
tions: "U.S.S.R. Occupied Germany". In such a case it is possible the camera was sold in USA.



Exa
Version 1, 1952 (A&R, Variant)
Exa
311, Engraved nameplate, 1950 (ECC)
232.948, a body number near, according to A&R, to the upper range limit of the Version 1. This Exa differs from the preceding only for the protective cover of the shutter release button, surely not added in following times. By intuition it should be coeval of the first Varex VX and it 'd come few days before the A&R's Version 2. The waist level finder has lost its block lever because this function is made by the protective cover. On this camera there is a variation that will be after used up to the last version: the back could be removed by taking off the spindle of the hinge. Norlin Rober doesn't notice it while A&R attibutes this variation to the Version 4.

The spindle of the hing is not present on the first version.
Here you can see the head of the spindle

Exa
Version 2, 1955 (A&R)
Exa
311, Engraved nameplate, 1950 (ECC)
The modifications respect to the Version 1 are: the protective cover and two black coaxial sockets, M and X, the same letters used on the previous camera.

Exa
Version 3, Rheinmetall, 1956 (A&R)
Exa
312, Rheinmetall, 1955 (ECC)
The camera I own has body number 245.265, inside the A&R's range (245.000-275.000). This model is however unmistakable for its inscriptions on the front plate and for the two black coaxial sockets. These two black sockets were also on the A&R's Version 2 so, as they were never used after by Ihagee, one can think that the A&R's Version 2 'd be produced by Sommerda, using the existing engraved front plates. If this hypothesis should be true, Sommerda could have made entirely the production 235.000-275.000.
If you read the front plate VEB is engraved on the viewfinder locking button, System is above Exa, Rhein on the left, metall on the right, Sommerda in the center above the lens. Even on the back of the wlf there is written Sommerda instead of Ihagee.
On the front part of the wlf there are again the white inscriptions Rheinmetall (italic, on the first line), Sommerda and Germany.

Everything is clear: Ihagee has entrusted the production of the Exa to another company who wanted to exhibit its own share. These are things of other times, not like the 126 Fiat made in Poland without the knowledge of the most part of Italian people!
But we must consider that Ihagee was very busy to produce day after day the camera on those days up to date, the Exakta Varex, and all the accesories that were completing the system.
For addition it must not be understimated that the Varex was costing around three times the Exa's price (which was every day decreasing). In those conditions it was easy to decide to choose it must be produced by another company. But this situation didn't last. To complete the usual discourse on the confusion and on the difficulty of characterizing the steps of the production by the details, the hinge of the Rheinmetall has yet its not removable spindle. The same as on the A&R notes, except the fact I have found this spindle on the first version! Please patience because there is, somewhere in the world, someone who knows everything and, before or then, he'll say it to us.

Exa
Version 4, 1957 (A&R)
Exa
311 (ECC)
Not more Sommerda, Ihagee again. There is the spindle. So the back can be removed, even if I don't know the utility of doing (I have not news about alternative backs). A&R point out a difference: it is inside the camera, on the rear of the back, where the guides on the film pressure are missing. As for the exterior the two coaxial sockets are now chrome, not more black, not more M and X, but F and X. The body number of my camera is 526.989, out of the A&R's range (400.000-520.000).

Exa
Version 5, 1958 (A&R)
Exa
313, Embossed Nameplate, 1958 (ECC)
The unique modification characterizing this Version is the embossed logo, even if the graphics is the traditional one. The body number of my camera is 548.566, inside, this time, to the A&R's range (520.000-560.000).

Exa
Version 6, 1961 (A&R)
Exa
314, Black Nameplate, 1961 (ECC)
When I was speaking about Ihagee's Jubilee I have already said how little Ihagee has made to celebrate it. So it is unuseful to continue to talk about the choose of altering the nameplate and let's go to see what is new on this camera. Useless to continue to speak about the logo even if we have not said that two years before the same inscription, tilted toward the right, appeared, even if engraved, on the Exa II's frontplate. The waist level finder has been simplified and has been covered by the usual black leatherette. The body numbers of my cameras go from 580.055 to 619.153 inside the A&R's range. These cameras show a peculiarity that can be seen with difficulty on older cameras: the body's and the back's bottom have similar chrome. The time has instead worked on the preceding versions: if you support a preceding version on a plain, the back is lifted about 1 mm and the body's chrome suffers an usury that day after day becomes more evident. From this usury have been saved only the last cameras, very probably forgotten somewhere after the Japanese surpass.

If we speak about the frontplate the upper round form has been changed and the engraved "Ihagee Dresden" inscription is in thin capital letters.