Ihagge Exa 11a and Exa11b

Along side the more famous and well known Exakta Varex, Ihagee produced a couple of series of a much simpler camera, the Exa. Starting in around 1950 with the Exa I. This some people claim to be the longest production run of basically the same SLR camera design, it was still in production in the 1990's though it lost the Exakta bayonet and gained an m42 mount sometime in the late 1970's.

In 1959 Ihagee produced the Exa 2 series of cameras which were really quite different to the Exa I, having a more conventional 'proper' focal plane shutter, with a fixed pentaprism which could not be removed and changed like the Exa I. This is the series of Exas which the subjects of this post, the IIa and IIb belong to. The 11a came out in 1963, followed by the IIb in 1965. The next development was the Exa 500 in 1967 which we have covered in a previous post.

What is the difference between the 11a and the 11b, well very little really, the wind on lever was a different shape, apart from that they look the same except of course the name, the 11b gained an instant return mirror and the little orange warning triangle in the top left hand corner of the viewfinder to jog your memory that you need to wind on, useful to me then in my teens and still useful now in my sixties, so some say it was a bit of a gimmick, but I have always loved this feature. It is found in some of the Prakticas of the same period. I have been out with a Praktica BMS today trying it out, I forgot to wind on a couple of times, this would not happen with an Exa IIb !

The other thing I really like about the Exa IIa / IIb is that nearly all of them came fitted with an Automatic 50mm Domiplan lens. Now you may if you have read a lot of reviews say, well this was a poor lens, however I beg to differ, on paper well yes it may have been, but in use that is a different subject. Forget test charts and the like and think about actual pictures. The automatic stop down lever is brilliant in use, you just eased it gently down with the first finger of your left hand, you could see all that was sharp or not depending on what you wanted and the stop you chose, then just follow through with a little bit more pressure to fire the shutter. I have produced massive enlargements from Domiplan negs, where I spun the enlarger right round on the darkroom bench and put the paper carrier on the floor and still got the results I wanted. No don't expect it to be pin sharp wide open at 2.8. but at f8-22 no problem!

One further design feature with the Domiplan lens is you can't accidently move the focus ring whilst you adjust the aperture, unlike the Pentacon lens I was using today where I kept moving the focus when turning the aperture ring. This is what prompted me to start this post, as I was going around with the Praktica BMS with its standard 50mm Pentacon lens I kept thinking, this would not happen with an Exa Domiplan combination! In the image below you can see that the aperture ring is right out at the front where it should be, miles away from the focus ring. Designed !

So yes there you have it, forget the Domiplans bad reviews, that old Meyer-Optik is actually all right. I think quality did drop off at the latter stages of production, but in the mid to late 1960's those fitted to the Exa IIa / IIb / and Exa 500 were all right! The later Domiplans had a bit more plastic on them, you can tell them by the black shutter release instead of the silver one.

The unusual shape and compact dimensions of the Exa IIa and IIb means you can hold these cameras rock solid, they are just easy to hold. However you may find the left hand shutter release a bit strange unless you are use to it. Most cameras you release the shutter with your right hand, but not the Exa, where you use the left! I'm used to the left hand shutter release due to an Exa being my first camera, so it is natural to me, but for people used to a right hand shutter, the Exa can take some getting used to. Even the experienced photographer and author the late Ivor Matanle mentioned he was not a natural with the left hand shutter release and he was a gentleman that really knew his old cameras. I guess I was lucky, I knew nothing else for years using Exa and Exakta from 14 to 21 when I got my Praktica B200.

Of course there are many other lenses you can use on a IIa/IIb, there were a vast number of manufacturers all producing Exakta fit lenses many of the German firms produced a whole range of lenses, but also there were many Japanese lens producers making good quality Exakta fit items. These are maybe more able to be found in the USA than in the UK, but don't discount getting a few Japanese lenses for the Exa, they are a little cheaper on average than the German ones at the moment, but don't overlook them just because they are not German.

Ebay is the obvious place to find Exa fit lenses, though they are no longer as cheap as they used to be due to the craze for fitting vintage lenses to modern digital cameras, but when you think how much they cost new, then in real terms I suppose they still are reasonable. There seems to be a better variety of lenses on German Ebay, Ebay de, and American Ebay, Ebay.com, but postage costs and taxes can push the price out of reach if you are buying from the U.K.

A little tip regarding the Exa hard cases. You often get Exas where the cases have had a really hard life, all dull and scratched and the usual cleaning methods do very little. However all is not lost, I have found a polish that gets all the fine scratches out and brings the high gloss shine back to the hard plastic areas of the cases. This is called Greygate Plastic Polish. Classic car owners use it to revive cloudy rear windows of such cars like the MG F. It really works on them and it really works on the black coating of the hard Exa case. A word of warning though, don't go mad with it as you will go right through the black coating to the grey base underneath, but used sparingly and with caution it really sorts the scratches and brings back the shine.

Un polished on top left, polished on bottom right. But once you have done it, use a non abrasive polish for any further cleaning or you will go through the black !

I hope that you have enjoyed this post and maybe found it useful ! Hopefully I have also inspired you to try out one of these little beauties, you should be able to pick up something smart and useable between say Thirty and Sixty pounds so they are not too expensive. Also don't forget the Exa II and the Exa 500, which are more or less the same camera.

Oh and when I can find where I put my Exa 1, then I will do a post on those. But they are really a different ball game altogether.

Take care,

Philip.

Oh and a little PS here, I have just found this article on the internet on the subject of Exas, this is very in depth and probabely the best article on Exa that I have ever read. Take a look. Exa | zeissikonveb.de

Cheers, Phil