Copyright © 1995-1998 Maurizio Frizziero.
Please ask permission to use articles to:
copyright@exakta.org

Exakta collecting is growing all over the world. The pre-production Kine Exakta The Worlds Earliest Surviving 35mm SLR?? Gary Cullen, 20 Jan 1999 The pre-production Kine Exakta earned its name because of it's many different parts and earliest known serial number of 455681. All other know round magnifier Kine Exaktas have numbers starting with 48xxxx It's probably more accurate to describe this camera as being from an early small production run assembled with many pre-production parts rather than an actual pre-production prototype. The only other Kines seen with the low 4556xx numbers are shown in the first Kine brochures and in the first Kine instruction book. There is one other Kine that has survived from this batch but unfortunately it had been used for parts when it was found and was missing its serial number plate, fast speed selector and round magnifier plate. This leads one to believe there could be a later Kine out there somewhere that has been "restored" using the parts from this other early Kine. If this is so, a later round magnifier Kine may surface at some time with a 4556xx number but without all the differences of these very early cameras. The frame counter starts with 0, not 1 like the later cameras. There is no arrow on the top of the speed selector and the height of the base of the speed selector is taller. The slow speed selector is like the Vest Pocket Exaktas, without a groove milled in the center. At first I thought it had been replaced with a VP knob but when I removed it and checked it against several knobs in my VP collection I found they were different. You can easily see the mirror is shorter and straight cut across at the bottom, without the classic early Exakta tapered front. The film roller guide is in a slightly different position and the arms holding the roller are longer. There is one less step in the machined steps of the back door release button Two of the tripod mount screws are further forward on the early camera. This is interesting because these two screws actually interfere with the internal mechanism and do not have nuts holding them on the inside like later cameras. There is only one internal nut on the single back screw. I can't believe Ihagee would have shipped cameras like this because there is virtually no strength with 2 of the 3 mount screws screwed into only 1.5 mm of aluminum. This camera mounted on a tripod bearing a heavy lens would have torn the tripod mount from the camera! Although this lens did not come with this camera (the whereabouts of it's original lens is unknown) it is the earliest known lens in existence for a Kine Exakta and it seems fit that it resides on this camera! It is a nickel and black paint 50 2.8 Tessar #1890899. Other differences not shown in the photos are: Several chromed parts are bright and not brushed matte. Film cutting knife knob has finer knurling. Rewind fork is made from thinner material and is attached differently to the rewind knob. Film sprocket guide is attached to the film guide plate directly, not the body casting like later cameras. If you have a Kine instruction book you'll see that the guide is not there at all, so it appears it was added later to this camera. The guide itself is a little different in it's shape than later cameras as well. Upon internal inspection there appears to be a lot of grinding to the body casting in order for the internal shutter/mirror box unit to fit. Exaktas from Gary Cullen's Collection Exaktas from Jim Hayes' Collection Exaktas from Klaus Rademaker's Collection Exaktas from Maurizio Frizziero's Collection Exaktas from Dresden Museum Index | Exaktas on Ebay | Menu

Traduzione
Se desiderate leggere queste pagine in italiano potete
cliccare qui