EXAKTA TIMES Number 22 March 1996

I don' know what you think about dreams. I don't often drem at all - not at night that is, although I am familiar with daydreams - and when I do dream at night I rarely recall what it was all about: But this dream was so real (authentic I mean, not that funny Exakta) that I persisted all the next day and I just had to put it down on paper.
I know that the experts will say all sorts of things about our dreams, why we dream about various topics, and perhaps it does depend on what you eat for supper, and what you are recalling from the day's experiences as you go to sleep. Well, yes, I do admit to eating a little cheese just before bedtime, (very nice Jarlsberg it was), but nothing had happened, particularly, to push my subconscious in the direction it took.
It went like this:....
I was attending at PCCGB Southern Region Meeting in the Civic Centre in Southend-on-Sea. Nothing strange about that, because I worked there for many years. But we've never had a meeting there because its too expensive. There were the usual few tables with the usual few tables with the usuals members running them: Dave and Julie Todd were there, so was Wally Morley with his funny hat. Suddenly I came across a table with someone who seemed so familiar, and I certainly knew his name (until I woke up!). The typical folding wooden shelves, wing-like at each end of the table, carried an interesting array of stuff.
But my eye lit upon a camera (well, I could only guess it was a camera because it was wrapped, very neatly, in pleated brown paper) and this oh-so-familiar dealer said "you'd better look at this, Peter, it'll interest you". I carefully unfolded the beautyfully prepared wrapping paper, to reveal a different kind of 35mm Exakta than I had ever seen before! It was not a IIa or a IIb, nor a VX 1000 or even a VX 500.
It said on the escutcheon "Exakta Varex III Ihagee Dresden" in traditional script. It had a redesigned body, and the traditional shape had been altered at the ends so although the fronts of the ends were curved, the back edges were square and the flat back hinged from sharp corners, not following around the usual curve. The top plate was in fine chrome, overlapping the top edge by half an inch or so, but the edges were rounded, and the prism housing was also much more rounded, but not at all like the Diamant. It was much more attractive than that. On the right front, rather like a Contax I, was a largish round knob, chrome domed, to set film speeds, and the camera had full TTL metering, and internally linked auto diaphragm. I had a feeling that this was one of those magic moments when I had come across a camera I didn't know existed.
The brown wrapping paper flew from the table, and as I picked it up, I saw that the inside was covered in printing. It was the instruction manual, complete with the usual pictures.
I just had to buy that VX III. The dealer was asking £430, but before I was able to decide how to pay for it, along came Jim Anderson and Tim Sharples and took it away. When I woke up, the details stayed with me for some time - even the name of the dealer, I tought, but later, it had gone. I suppose it was never there, really.
Just like the camera.




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