jeff@tesla.UUCP (Jeff Frey) (11/29/83)
Ah, how time flies! Here`s someone old enough to have bought a new Topcon D1 yet not old enough to know what an Exakta is. The first 35mm SLR, that`s all. Virtually unchanged in design from about 1936 to the sixties. Interchangeable finders, non-return mirror, focal-plane shutter from 12sec. to 1/1000, bayonet mount, no provision for internal triggering of diaphragm stopdown, a built-in knife to cut off your film if you`d taken as many pictures as you wanted (cassette- cassette loading required for this trick). Beautifully made pre-war, looked the same but rather tinny thereafter. Some very good lenses developed by Zeiss/Jena for this camera, including the famous 180mm/2.8 Olympic (1936) Sonnar. A real classic. Some of its designers must live on in the various Pentacon cameras, nominally from a different "company" in the same city, Dresden. The Exa was a low-budget ($99.95 in 1954) charmer, like a 5/8 scale Exakta but with a neat-o combined mirror and shutter mechanism that had a top speed of 1/150 sec. and besides limited the range of focal lengths the camera could accommodate without vignetting. Oh, in my childhood (i.e., before Pentax invented the instant-return mirror) what I wouldn`t have given for an Exakta VX IIa.... Jeff
bbanerje@sjuvax.UUCP (11/30/83)
It almost sounds as though you are describing a Contaflex. I
swiped it from my Father, who got it from a friend in 1958.
I don't know what model it was (I don't have it handy here at work).
It too is built like a tank. The viewfinder goes black when the
shutter is depressed. It doesn't have a hot shoe, and requires a
funny adapter to use with a flash gun. There is no associated
light meter. The lens says Zeiss Jena and is pin-sharp.
I've often felt like trading it in for a new SLR. However, it is
the first and only camera I've ever owned (from when I was 8 years
old). I'm used to its feel, and used to be able to gauge exposure
with Kodachrome 64 just by feel.
I have no idea what is worth or whether it has any curiosity/antique
value whatsoever ( I don't intend to sell it anyway ). However, I
am curious. If anyone out there knows, I'd appreciate it if they
would share their knowledge.
Regards
--
Binayak Banerjee
{astrovax | bpa | burdvax}!sjuvax!bbanerje