Ihagee Exakta Varex VX - A joy to behold, a nightmare to use.

[@flyingo]

Of the hundreds of 35mm cameras I own and use, these Exactas are always tops on my list (along with Nikon F2, Pentax K1000s, etc.) of reliable, dependable, brilliant pieces of exquisite machinery. People always marvel at them whenever I bring them out and ask if I can take photographs. I feel very fortunate to have picked mine up back in the late 90s for around $10 or $15 each.

[@howpow]

Flyingo, sounds like you have a lot more cameras than I. I've got about 100 including point and shoots, and like you picked up most of them after the great digital discard, for $20 to $30 each. I love the mechanical aspects of these cameras and as you say the Exacta range are right at the top in this area. Cheers, Howard 📷

[@flyingo]

@@howpow , yes, I have literally hundreds of cameras. It all started because my girlfriend wanted a Canon AE-1 for her birthday so I bid on 10 or 11 auctions (none more than $15), and I won 9 of them.. so I told her “I guess I’m a collector now.”, and continued to buy cameras for less than $25 for a few years. Then I didn’t stop 😉.

[@howpow]

@@flyingo You must have quite a impressive display. 😃

[@inregionecaecorum]

@@howpow I only have around 60 not even got to the ton yet.

[@howpow]

@@inregionecaecorum Unfortunately it's a much more expensive exercise to collect interesting cameras these days. The good old days of $15 cameras has long gone. Cheers, Howard 📷

[@murraykriner9425]

It's a lovely clockworks example of just how precise things used to be for many engaged in the craft of photography back in the day. For utilitarian use, the operations manual is readily available on-line, even if a working example may be harder to come by these days. Mine has had a rather hard path, but still is functional, even if it's no longer the shiney brass farthing it once was. The Jena lens is the diadem of this crown jewel, finding a faery-tale, unicorn status, even today, with all the fluff bits from the Artisan Lens Community. She is gorgeous, and surely worthy of her lineage, and build quality. My warmest regards.

[@howpow]

Beautifully put Murray. With your turn of phrase, you should have done this video instead of me. I'm lucky that mine is a working example, but the lens and prism were donated from a non working example. Thanks again for your beautiful homage. 👍

[@petersnow389]

An excellent review of a superb camera. I purchased mine, new, in 1969, and since then, have built up a small, but varied collection, of Exakta cameras and Zeiss lenses, including some of the delightful little Exa models. My Father used a Kine Exakta, (as his personal camera), when he was stationed in Egypt during WW2. Unfortunately, he sold it when he returned to the UK, but it was on his recommendation that I purchased my Exakta, and 53 years down the line, and still using Exaktas, proves what very good advice Dad gave me!.

[@howpow]

Hi Peter, that's a fantastic story, generations of Exakta users. Sounds like you have a very nice collection. Have you considered doing some videos yourself based around your collection. There's always room for more. Cheers, Howard's

[@petersnow389]

@@howpow Hello Howard, Many thanks for the reply. I certainly could create some videos, but have to be honest, and say that it is something I had never thought of doing myself. Having said that, you are absolutely right, some more videos such as yours are needed on this wonderful true system camera, perhaps giving it the recognition it deserves!. Best wishes. Peter.

[@howpow]

@@petersnow389 Hi Peter, I'm 80, so if I can do it anybody can. I just use my phone on a tripod and sit behind it. Have a go, you don't have to upload them if you're not happy. Cheers Howard

[@jp3576]

Thank you Howard. This is one of the only vintage cameras I’ve ever considered buying in a nonfunctional state, it’s that beautiful to look at. IMHO. Thanks again..

[@howpow]

Hi J P. If you're going down that route make sure you get one of the early ones. Not only more beautiful but also better build quality. Cheers, Howard

[@christophermckie1485]

Great review! My first camera was an Exakta Varex like yours but with a Zeiss Tessar preset lens. I found I could hold the camera on my left palm and then focus and change f stops easily with the thumb and forefinger of my left hand. I then could press the shutter release with the second, longest, finger of my fight hand and advance the film with my right thumb in one movement. Sounds complicated but worked for me - and still does with the Exakta Varex 11a with automatic Tessar lens which I bought for the princely sum of £2, priced so low as the shutter had pinholes. I repaired these with Dylon Black Fabric Paint and - voila- everything works! My original Exakta was sold years ago but I regretted selling it and was delighted to be able to replace it 50 years later with this incredible bargain.

[@howpow]

Hi Christopher, great buy and good repair. I think everyone who likes cameras should have one. I'm glad you are back in the group. 👍

[@EdMorbius46]

I enjoyed your review, Howard, which I have only just found two years later. I am 78, and my first serious camera as a student in 1964 was a second-hand Exakta Varex (1951), which had just the waist level finder (with a thoughtful feature that folding it shut locked the shutter button) and a non-auto Primoplan lens, so it really was slow to use. But, as you say its engineering was a joy to behold and it upped the quality of my photos considerably. I am left-handed, and found its handling very comfortable (gripping and focusing with right hand, operating with left). The following year I bought a new Varex IIb with Pentaprism, automatic Zeiss Tessar lens, and coaxial socket for electronic flash. I began using one camera for colour and the other for monochrome, at which time my photography really took off. I am sad that I don't still have at least one of these wonderful cameras, but the advantages of a built-in light meter and automation were irresistible. I still have the "35mm Exakta handbook" by KL Allinson ARPS, so offer some historical details: The earlier models sported two pairs of sockets on the sloping front shoulders of the camera, prior to the International standardisation that resulted in coaxial sockets for flash. I was interested that your model was produced in 1954, and on the left-hand side sported a real oddity that straddled these two eras - a plug-in adapter for a coaxial electronic flash connection. You were puzzled by the need for a second pair of sockets on the right-hand side. Prior to the arrival of electronic flash, the pair on the camera's right catered for a type of flashbulb termed a focal plane flashbulb. This was used for cameras like the Exakta with a focal plane shutter, which involved a pair of synchronised curtains travelling from one side to the other very close to the film plane. The focal plane flashbulb had a long slow burn, and could be used with faster shutter speeds, when the synchronised curtains in effect moved a slit across the long axis of the film. The very even burning of the bulb during shutter travel ensured evenness of the sequential lighting of the resulting image. The pair of contacts on the camera's left were for shutter speeds of 1/25 or slower, when the curtains exposed the whole of the film at once for a short period of time, rather than the sequential (effectively shorter) exposure produced by a moving slit of varying width. It was important, with the more prolonged full exposure of the frame (1/25 or longer), to know whether your camera synchronised flash with "first curtain" or "second curtain", because moving subjects would show a smeared motion trail following, or preceding, the brighter image produced by the flash (a trail after the bright flash image tended to look "more natural"). Of course, with a focal plane shutter electronic flash (or a standard flashbulb) could not be used with higher shutter speeds, because this would have simply exposed a slice of the image, at the beginning or end of travel of the slit! Thanks for this tour down memory lane. During the 1980s and 90s I moved on to TTL metered film cameras (Chinon Memetron, Olympus OM10, Canon & Pentax; and now I use digital (a Canon Powershot SX50, for video as well as still images). I feel very lazy - Exakta made you work for your photos, and was like a precision mechanical timepiece! 😉

[@howpow]

Hi Ed. I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I think you should be doing this instead of me. That's a very impressive dissertation you've just presented. Thanks for the flash info. Cheers, Howard

[@EdMorbius46]

@@howpow Thanks, but I'm just happy to support what you are doing. 😉

[@CBortlearts]

I finally found one of these Howard. Going to look at it tomorrow. A local seller...100 bucks. It is the VX IIA but it has a meyer optik lens instead of the zeiss. I had to rewatch this video to make sure I knew how to test everything.

[@howpow]

That sounds like pretty good value if it's a good one. They're ergonomically challenging but are beautiful cameras. Cheers, Howard

[@bartwaggoner2000]

I just acquired one in similar condition - such a fantastically made beast!

[@howpow]

Hi bartwaggoner. These cameras are that rare combination of mechanical excellence and art. Everyone interested in the art of film photography should have one. Cheers, Howard 📷

[@MAHSE.0079]

I have an exakta cares iia and can definitely say it is still an amazing camera

[@howpow]

I assume that you meant Varex IIa. Yes, they are an amazing family of cameras. Quirks and all. 📷

[@proshotsfiji]

JUST BOUGHT ONE IN MINT CONDITION, NOT CHEAP, BUT YOUR VIDEO IS A GREAT HELP! THANKS

[@howpow]

Hi William. These cameras are a mechanical work of art. I'm glad you like it. Cheers, Howard 📷

[@johnmoore901]

This is definitely the best review out of all the Exacta examples, I have just bought one which has a sticky second curtain, any idea how I could it fixed?? John Moore.

[@howpow]

Hi John. Thanks for the kind comment. All I can suggest is to go to the nearest good camera store who should probably have the contact Info of a repairer, or check on Google. Playing around with the curtains is a specialist area. Good luck. Cheers, Howard

[@dadautube]

nice video ... was Exacta the first ever 35mm full frame film camera? i always thought it's Leica ...

[@howpow]

No, but it was the first commercially available Single Lens Reflex ( SLR ) camera.

[@dadautube]

@@howpow so, you mean Leica was not commercially available at first?

[@howpow]

@@dadautube Leica was earlier but was a Rangefinder camera, the Exakta was the first SLR camera, the two types are quite different.

[@dadautube]

@@howpow yes, i am over 18 years of age and as a semi-pro (once fully pro) photog of the 20th century do happen to know the difference between an RF vs an SLR type of cameras! :-) only, the video doesn't say Exacta was the first SLR 35mm camera ... it just says it was the first 35mm camera per se ...

[@johnmoore901]

Hi, really enjoyed your video very much, I noticed the little connector between the two X flash ports, never seen one before, just wondering if they are available anywhere?? Kindest regards John Moore.

[@howpow]

Hi John. Sorry I missed your comment. I love the look of the connector, it's like a little bit of art deco. I'd be surprised if they are available, I think you would have to fine a broken camera that had one and transfer it. Cheers, Howard 📷

[@artistjoh]

I still have my Varex VX. Bought a used one in the 1970's. It was my first 135 camera. I always hated using that camera. The only camera I disliked using more, was the Olympus Pen EEE. Probably a large part of my dislike was the low contrast (probably uncoated) lenses, and coming from large and medium format it seemed just fiddly. However my next 135 camera was a Pentax MX (bought new) and I loved using that camera. I was still shooting TLR for serious work, and used the 135 cameras for personal stuff, and for shooting Kodachrome. Eventually I migrated to Nikon and then Canon in the digital era. I still shoot 135 film sometimes, but only on Nikon. I should be grateful for the Varex VX, and I do have a grudging enjoyment of it as piece of my photographic past, but I have zero desire to push any film through it these days. Definitely for me more valuable as a memory and appreciating the craftsmanship of how it was made, but it is enough for it to be on my old cameras shelf and that is all. One day I will pass away and no doubt it will get sold, and then maybe someone might push some 135 film through it and then decide whether or not they like it. It is nice to think that someone might appreciate it more than me and it will have a new life.

[@howpow]

As I said in my review " a nightmare to use". It's certainly the most awkward camera that's I have ever used. I still love it though, it's just so quirky! But it's certainly not the first camera I reach for when I feel the need to shoot some film. Cheers, Howard 📷

[@TenchiLoh]

How do we know the film is correctly loaded onto the take up spool? Modern SLR can see the direction of the rewind knob turning...how about VX?

[@howpow]

Hi TenchiLoh. If you look at the camera from the front, the rewind knob on the bottom left rotates with the film. Cheers, Howard 📷 .

[@TenchiLoh]

@@howpow found out that mine is ver 4.1, there is a small window at the edge of the slow speed dial, the red lines/cross will turn when advancing the film.

[@howpow]

@@TenchiLoh Hello again TenchiLoh. I hate to admit it but my camera has the same tiny window and I never realised what it showed. Thanks for the info. Cheers, Howard 📷

[@headlightking]

I just inherited my grandfathers. MINT condition. Not a scratch on it. 2 lenses. Light meter and external incident light. I’m a happy man!

[@howpow]

So you should be. That's quite a catch. 👍

[@randallstewart175]

In the late 1950s, I spend a year studying a later, similar version of this camera as my potential first SLR camera. it's attraction was a bvast variety of lenses from many lenbs makers plus the huge catalog of accessories, even more than Nikon eventually developed around the Nikon F. In the end, I decided to invest in the future rather than the past and bought a Nikkorex F and the then new 50mm 1.4 Nikkor. It cost me more than the Exakta and a hat full of lenses, but I never regretted that choice. This sequence of Exakta models was the end of the line, as the camera got strangled in cold war politics and litigation in the two Germanys as to who owned the Exakta name and whether the camera was barred from export to the US. (I know that a West German company later sold a couple of models labelled Exakta Real (joke name?), but they had nothing to do with the historical Exakta.)

[@howpow]

Hi Randall. I think you made the right choice in going with Nikon. As much as I love my Exakta the ergonomics are pretty hard to deal with. It certainly slows my photography down. Really It's at it's best on a tripod. As you say it a shame that such a famous brand ended up the way it did. Thanks for your comment. Regards, Howard

[@inregionecaecorum]

I have an Exa which I used for many years, the poor man's Exakta.

[@howpow]

I've never handled an Exa but I'm sure they had a lot of the charm of their more expensive brothers. Howard 😃

[@alanyoung-fy9lb]

Great demo

[@howpow]

Thanks Alan, I appreciate your comment. Cheers, Howard 📷

[@andrewcomerford9411]

Having once owned one of these beauties, I've always felt that the controls are in the wrong places, and they were stupidly over-engineered. Also, none of that matters when you pick one up.

[@howpow]

They're certainly not the most logical cameras in the world. Cheers, Howard

[@christophermckie1485]

Sorry, right hand, not fight hand. If I were a boxer, Which I'm not I would be a southpaw

[@howpow]

Hi Christopher, I had guessed that you meant "right hand" since you didn't come across as violent. I'm glad you managed to master the way to hold the Exakta, I'm still working on it. I might try your method. Great old cameras. 😀 .

[@zelmoziggy]

ee-HAH-gay, not eye-AH-jee.

[@howpow]

Ok, Thanks 👍 Cheers, Howard

[@johnmoore901]

I-HAD-GEE, Industry Handler Gegellshaft

[@zelmoziggy]

@@johnmoore901 That’s not how German letters are pronounced.