Ihagee Exakta Varex IIa1957

History

Ihagee (Industrie- und Handels-Gesellschaft mbH) was founded in Dresden in 1912 and had been making cameras since the 1920s. The Exakta line began with the VP Exakta (1933), the world's first 35mm roll-film SLR, and progressed through the Kine Exakta (1936), the first 35mm SLR to use standard 35mm cassettes. The postwar Exakta VX (1951) was the first major SLR to achieve commercial success in the US market, imported and promoted by Charles Beseler Company.

The Varex IIa (export name in the West — East German domestic name remained "Exakta VX IIa") was introduced in 1957 as the most refined expression of the classic Exakta formula. Its slow-speed mechanism was redesigned using a magnetic brake — a precision governor that provided smoother, more reliable slow exposures from 1/5s down to 12s without the creep or sticking common in spring-governed escapements.

Production of the Varex IIa continued until 1963, when the Varex IIb succeeded it. Ihagee's fortunes declined through the 1960s as M42-mount cameras from Praktica and Pentax dominated the market, and the company was dissolved in 1961 (East German state reorganisation). Later Exakta bodies were produced by a successor enterprise, VEB Pentacon.

Why It Matters

The Exakta Varex IIa is historically important as the most refined iteration of the camera that proved professional 35mm SLR photography was viable. Its interchangeable finder system predated the Nikon F's system by two years and influenced the design philosophy of every modular professional SLR that followed. The Exakta mount's extensive lens ecosystem — particularly Zeiss Jena Biotar 58/2 and Flektogon 35/2.8 — remains beloved by collectors and adapted-lens users today.

Lenses & Accessories

Premier lenses: Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 50/3.5, Biotar 58/2, Flektogon 35/2.8, Pancolar 50/2; Meyer-Optik Primotar 50/3.5, Oreston 50/1.8, Lydith 30/3.5; Schneider-Kreuznach Curtagon 35/2.8, Xenon 50/1.9. Accessories: interchangeable viewfinders (waist-level, right-angle, metered prism), bellows, microscope adaptors, and an extensive range of period Exakta-mount accessories. Modern M42-to-Exakta adaptors allow use of many M42 lenses.

Sample Photographers / Notable Use

• Used extensively in East German scientific and laboratory photography through the 1950s–1960s.
• Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954) filming involved Exakta bodies on the rear-projection camera stand.
• Widely used by photojournalists in continental Europe before the Nikon F established dominance in the late 1960s.
• Collected today for the Zeiss Jena and Meyer-Optik lens ecosystem as much as for the body itself.

References

• Camera-Wiki: Exakta Varex IIa