Basic Exakta Viewfinders |
One of the great features of the Exakta (and later Exa) line of cameras was interchangeability of viewfinders and viewing screens. This was introduced with the Exakta Varex (distributed in the U.S. as Exakta V) in 1950 and the original Exa in 1951. Both cameras would accept the same finders. This article presents the basic interchangeable viewfinders for the Exakta and Exa lines of cameras from Ihagee Dresden. Any late-period cameras carrying the Exakta or Exa name but not really parts of the Ihagee model sequence are not included (e.g., Exakta RTL 1000, really a Practica VLC with an Exakta lens bayonet, or the West-German Exakta Real, or various Japan-made models with just an Exakta logo). I am also not discussing here any of the specialized finders: ones with light metering, magnifying units, and stereoscopic ones. The magnifiers are described in a separate article on macro equipment; with the others (except of the Travemat metering finder) I'm missing enough expertise to speak out. Version notation The most commonly used notation is that introduced by Aguila and Rouah in their 1987 book and refined in the 2003 one. On spite of this, and swimming against the current, I will be using my own notation, which better reflects the similarities and differences between various models; this starts from an "H" or "P" for hooded and prism finders, respectively. The A&R 2003 notation will also be shown wherever applicable, as just "A&R". Hooded Finders These, often also called waist-level finders, consist of a hood, with a viewing screen inserted at the bottom, and with a magnifying loupe at top. As always in this kind, the image was inverted in the left/right plane; with moving objects this was quite inconvenient. This is why the earlier models of waist-level finders had a sports viewfinder: a small cut-off in the rear side of the hood, and a larger one in the front side; viewing through these would give the photographer an approximate idea of the coverage for a standard (50 to 58 mm) lens. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The front view of the major versions H.1, H.2, and H.3 (left to right) of the hooded finders. Note the vertical shutter lock lever at the right of H.1; it is gone in H.2. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The same models, as seen from the rear. Various A&R versions differ mainly in the etched lettering. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The one major functional difference between H.1 and H.2 is that the older version has a vertical lever, moving down when the finder was closed, to disable the shutter release. The Varex camera bodies had a small hole to accommodate this lever. This hole was gone in the second version or Varex VX (*4.2, or A&R v2), therefore to use an H.1 finder with a *4.2 or later body, the lever had to be taken off. This is why some of these finders on the market may come without it. Version H.3 was a radical departure from previous ones, not only in terms of looks and of the missing sports finder. The major difference was that it would now accept the same focusing screens as prism finders did, not the earlier, thick (2 cm or so) blocks. It also was released in a pretty, striped Jubilee version for the 25-th anniversary of Kine Exakta in 1961. A plastic hood (not shown) similar to H.3 was made in the Eighties for screw-mount Exas. It is quite ugly, and it may deserve being referred to as a separate Version H.4. Actually, once prism finders became available, very few photographers wanted to use waist-level finders, with their low image brightness, imprecise focusing, and direction reversal. Some people would even retrofit prism finders on earlier bodies without finder interchangeability (which was not so difficult for Exakta II). Still, Ihagee was selling a large fraction of cameras with only hooded finders included, to force users into paying extra for prism ones. For those who have to know such things, the table below lists all versions of Ihagee hooded finders, with references given to the A&R classification. Note: the hooded finders bore no serial numbers. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Notes on hooded finders:
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The front view of the major versions P.1, P.2, P.3, and P.4 (left to right) of the prism finders. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The same models, as seen from the rear. Various A&R versions differ mainly in the etched lettering. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Again, there was also a plastic-top version similar to P.4 and made in the Eighties for screw-mount Exas; we will refer to it as P.5. These major versions can be further subdivided along mostly cosmetic differences, as shown in the following table. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Notes on prism finders:
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Finder accessories The interchangeable focusing screens deserve a separate article. The A&R 2003 book provides a comprehensive listing. | |
One nice accessory to have is the prism finder eyecup. Three versions of these were made by Ihagee (1950, 1956, and 1961), of which the second one is shown here (marked Ihagee Germany on the front surface, facing the camera and not visible in the picture).
The eyecup is too deep to allow for unrestricted viewing while wearing glasses. On the other hand, it has a provision (threaded ring) to install a corrective lens. I had one of these cut of my old glasses. | |
There was also an accessory shoe, slipping over the finder eyepiece. It could be used to hold a small flash unit or a "universal" optical finder (like those made for Leica). Finder/Body Compatibility Exakta Bodies. True to the system camera concept, all finders could be used on all Exakta bodies (starting from the Varex, which introduced finder interchangeability). The only (minor) problem was, as mentioned above, that you had to remove the shutter-locking lever from the hooded finders of the H.1 type (A&R v1, 2, and 3) to use it on Varex VX *4.2 or a later model. This was a five-minute operation, although a collector wouldn't want to do it now. Exa Bodies. The original Exa line (*1) retains full compatibility with all finders, and all models up to *1.5 accommodate the shutter lock lever of H.1. This is in spite of the fact that starting from Exa *1.2 (A&R v2) the finders sold with cameras no longer had the locking arm. Exa I Bodies. The body construction of Exa I (*2) has changed drastically, and it has a deep (~8 mm) recess around the finder well. Therefore these cameras will accept finders only starting from Version H.3 and P.3 (the earlier ones could be modified to fit by cutting off a protruding lip around the finder top). Exa II Bodies. These bodies had a built-in prism finder, therefore did not accept any interchangeable ones. Other Exakta finders Just a short list, compiled from available sources (except for the Travemat, I don't have any of these items in my collection):
Note that both CdS metering prisms come from the West. The Workers Paradise already started lagging technologically behind. There were also two stereoscopic finders, distributed as a part of stereo attachments, and two magnifying units by Ihagee, designed primarily for macrophotography. |
Back to my main Exakta page |
Photographs taken with an Olympus Camedia C-5050Z camera. |
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Posted 2004/01/25; last updated 2004/12/04 | Copyright © 2004 by J. Andrzej Wrotniak |