[rollei_list] Re: More R...35mm Pro cameras, Pentax

  • From: Pramod Kotwal <pramodkotwal@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 16:28:04 -0700 (PDT)

Elias,

The original Exacta was made in Dresden.

It was a formidable competitor to Leica with its range finder doctrine.

Exacta was a 35 mm camera, just like the Leica, the first SLR and a true 
modular camera to boot. It had interchangable lenses and interchangable 
viewfinders.

As opposed to Leica's screw mount, Exacta had a bayonet mount.

You just removed the viewfinder with a pentaprism and inserted a waist level 
viewfinder in its place. There were different screens for the waist level 
viewfinder as well, including one with a fresnel lense.

The shutter was a cloth shutter with an adjustable slit that determined the 
exposure. It went to 1/1000.

Several excellent lenses were available, including a fantastic fully automatic 
Tessar 2.8 and other manual wide angle and tele lenses.
The film was wound in the opposite direction (to what is standard now)and a 
most unusual feature was a built in cutter that allowed you to cut the film in 
the camera. That way you could remove the exposed part of the film and leave 
the unexposed part of the film in the casette. It was supposed to be for 
journalists who wanted their pictures in a hurry and did not want to wait till 
the whole fim was exposed.

After the war Dresden was in the DDR, the part that was controlled by the 
Soviet Union. Carl Zeiss, who used to be in Jena, also later in the DDR, owned 
the Tessar. But after the war they moved to Oberkochen in West Germany and 
Exacta could only call their Tessar T 2.8 but not Tessar.

Exacta lost the connection to the West and missed out on the post war economic 
boom. They were very popular in the East block but that was no great help. The 
state owned company lived on for a long time. They even made a low end Exacta 
called Exa but it never cought on.

I own an Exacta with a T 2.8 lens, one wide angle lens, several filters, both 
viewfinders, extension rings and a number of filters. I enjoyed using it for 
many years but have not used for a long time. It is kind of heavy.

For a short while Exacta was even made in West Germany. It looked a bit better 
but it was too late.  

Just musings about bye-gone days.
Should I enjoy being called a masochist?
I suppose there are worse things to be accused of.

I enjoyed our "field trip" to the MFA.

Pramod

--- On Sun, 3/28/10, Jerry Lehrer <glehrer@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Jerry Lehrer <glehrer@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [rollei_list] Re: More R...35mm Pro cameras, Pentax
> To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Date: Sunday, March 28, 2010, 6:24 PM
> Elias,
> 
> You must be referring to the Kine Exacta.  A camera
> designed by and for left-handed people.  That camera
> never kept up with the features
> that became standard with high end Japanese cameras. 
> The auto diaphragm was an afterthought that was not built
> into the camera, only
> the lens. Exactas became a cult camera.  A cult of
> Masochists! :-)
> 
> My photo instructor at The Bronx HS of Science had a VP
> Exacta which used 127 film.  He did some superb work
> with it. In 1944
> he traded it for toward a Rolleiflex TLR.  The
> influence of that Rollei on me changed my life forever. That
> instructor, Charles I. Hellman
> is 100 years old and is still taking pictures!
> 
> Jerry Lehrer
> 
> 
> Elias_Roustom wrote:
> > Since you're talking about 35mm SLRs, one that worked
> much like the TLR, and one I miss very much since it stopped
> working about 25 years ago is Dad's old Xacta with the waist
> level finder. I understand some of those lenses were stellar
> performers. What put them out of business, Japan?
> > ---
> 
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