Ihagee Exakta 661954

History

Ihageewerk AG was a Dresden camera manufacturer with roots going back to 1912 and a claim to one of the most consequential innovations in camera history: the 1936 Kine Exakta, generally accepted as the world's first practical 35mm SLR. The firm continued under East German nationalisation after World War II, producing the postwar Exakta Varex series (from 1950) alongside the older Exakta VP/Varex waist-level bodies.

The Exakta 66 represents Ihagee's ambition to extend the Exakta brand into medium format, presumably to compete with the growing reputation of Hasselblad (1948) and the Rolleiflex TLR. The choice of a focal-plane shutter distinguished the Exakta 66 from most 6x6 SLR competitors and directly echoed the Exakta 35mm design lineage. The left-hand shutter release - a defining quirk of all Exakta designs that attracted photographers accustomed to the system and puzzled everyone else - was retained in the 66 body.

Production details for the Exakta 66 are not well established in available sources. The camera appears to have been produced in limited numbers and has never achieved the collector profile of the 35mm Exakta Varex series or the Hasselblad 500C.

East German camera production in this period was managed under the VEB nationalised enterprise system; Ihagee's exact operational structure and production allocations within the Dresden camera industry are subject to ongoing historical research.

Why It Matters

The Exakta 66 matters principally as a road not taken in 6x6 SLR design. By the mid-1950s, two competing philosophies for medium-format SLR cameras were available: the between-lens leaf shutter approach (Hasselblad 500C, 1957) and the focal-plane approach (Exakta 66). The leaf-shutter approach won commercially, primarily because it allowed flash synchronisation at all shutter speeds and because Hasselblad's modular system - interchangeable backs, finders, and magazines - offered workflow advantages that no focal-plane 6x6 SLR of the era matched.

The Exakta 66 is also a document of Ihagee's attempt to remain competitive in medium format during a period when the Dresden camera industry was being reorganised under East German state management. The VEB nationalisation process resulted in Ihagee's eventual merger with other Dresden firms and the gradual dilution of the Exakta brand. The 66 represents Ihagee still operating as an identifiable engineering entity with its own design idiom.

For collectors, the camera represents an interesting convergence: the oldest SLR brand heritage (Exakta/Ihagee) applied to medium format using the focal-plane shutter logic that made the 35mm Exakta famous.

Lenses & Accessories

The Exakta 66 uses its own bayonet mount, distinct from the 35mm Exakta Varex mount. Native lens options were limited:

• Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 80mm f/2.8 - the standard kit lens; a proven four-element design with good centre sharpness and acceptable edge performance for 6x6 coverage
• Other Zeiss Jena medium-format optics - some wider and longer options may have been offered, but the lens range was narrow compared to the 35mm Exakta system

The limited native lens range is one of the practical constraints that reduced the Exakta 66's competitive standing against the Hasselblad system, which from the beginning offered a broader and more carefully developed optic programme.

No motor drive or interchangeable magazine system was available for the Exakta 66. A waist-level finder was standard; the finder appears not to have been interchangeable in the Hasselblad sense.

Sample Photographers / Notable Use

• Dresden-region professional and scientific photographers in the 1950s who were already within the Exakta system and sought a medium-format extension.
• Documentary photographers in East Germany who were supplied with or had access to domestically produced equipment.
• Collected today primarily by Ihagee and Exakta specialists as the medium-format branch of the Exakta tree.

References

• Camera-Wiki: Exakta 66 - primary reference for model specifications and production context