Exakta 66
The Exakta 66 is a medium format SLR camera from Exakta GmbH in Nuremberg . It was built in three models from 1984 to 2000. The Exakta 66 is technically and optically based on the Pentacon SIX of the VEB Pentacon combine in Dresden . It has a housing typical for 35mm SLR cameras without interchangeable magazines and a Pentacon Six bayonet ( P6 bayonet) - expanded from model 2 onwards .
Three different cameras than Exakta 66
There were three completely different cameras with that name. All three were only sold in small numbers for different reasons. The model presented in 1939 was an enlarged form of the Varex, in an attractive, modern case, which the Dresden Varex did not have until its end. Its manufacturing tools were destroyed in the attack on Dresden in 1945 and never reconstructed. In 1948, instead, an old-fashioned-looking design that was more reminiscent of the early 30s was brought out with vertical film transport. On the intended US market as a source of foreign currency, sales were only sluggish until it was discontinued in 1954, also due to numerous defects. Only the last model in the form of a later embellished Pentacon 6 was able to gain some importance alongside the Hasselblad in the market niche of the medium format. However, the Japanese Rittreck 66, later Norita 66, which as a 6x6 camera even had a 2.0 lens, had already experienced small numbers of this concept in the professional sector.
The West German successor to Dresden-based Ihagee , Ihagee AG, had won the legal dispute over the Exakta brand name . The name Exakta therefore disappeared from the East German Ihagee products that were exported to the western economic area. While the East German Ihagee was first absorbed in Pentacon and further in the Carl Zeiss Combine, the West German Ihagee AG was not very successful in selling cameras under the Exakta name . Ihagee AG filed for bankruptcy in 1976. After an interlude with Japanese companies, the brand name went to the Nuremberg company Miranda Foto-Video in 1982 . Miranda belonged to the photo entrepreneur Heinrich Manderman , who had been importing GDR products to the West since the 1960s (" Beroflex ").
In this context, Manderman founded Exakta GmbH in Nuremberg, which brought out the first Exakta 66 in 1984. Rumor has it that a Pentacon Six was one of Heinrich Manderman's first cameras. Distribution was through Beroflex, the lenses came from Schneider Kreuznach - a traditional company that Manderman had just acquired from bankruptcy in the early 1980s .
Models
The Exakta model 1 was introduced in 1984. The design (the "frame") of the Exakta 66 was taken from the Dresden Pentacon Six . The case has been improved. The model 1 had an unchanged P6 bayonet connection.
The Model 2 was released as early as 1986 . Here the aperture values could be transferred from the lens to the prism. However, this functional expansion also required an expansion of the P6 bayonet. A number of other improvements have also taken place. A modern Fresnel lens including a grid , measuring wedge and microprism ring was used in the finder shaft .
In 1997 the model 3 appeared . A mirror lock-up could be activated via a cable release . The model 3 was manufactured after 1990 at Pentacon in Laubegast , then in Seidnitz by the Pentacon successor company Schneider Feinwerktechnik GmbH . The last Exakta 66 was produced at the end of 2000. The production consisted of one man who had to recycle the Pentacon-6 parts.
Lenses
The same lenses as, for example, the Praktisix , Pentacon Six or Kiev 60 fit on the unchanged P6 bayonet of model 1 . The model 1 as well as the successor models were delivered with high-quality lenses from Schneider-Werke, Kreuznach .
From model 2 , an aperture value transfer was provided. However, this function can only be used with the Schneider lenses specially built for the Exakta 66 with a technically advanced P6 bayonet. From a purely mechanical point of view, however, all P6 bayonet lenses can still be used.
The following Schneider lenses were built for the Exakta 66:
- Curtagon MF 4.0 / 40 mm
- Curtagon MF 3.5 / 60 mm
- Xenotar MF 2.8 / 80 mm
- Tele-Xenar MF 4.0 / 150 mm
- Tele-Xenar MF 5.6 / 250 mm
- Variogon MF 4.5 / 75-150 mm
- Variogon MF 5.6 / 140-280 mm
- PCS Super-Angulon MF 4.5 / 55 mm
The Variogone and the PCS-Super-Angulon were also used in the Rollei 6000 series.
equipment
As accessories there were two interchangeable viewfinders (light shaft and TTL prism viewfinder), several focusing screens (Fresnel with sectional image indicator and microprism ring, microprisms, fine matting), an automatic bellows device, special bellows lenses, macro rings and a viewfinder magnifier.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mike Johnston, December 2, 2009, on his blog "The Online Photographer"
- ↑ http://www.dresdner-kameras.de/pentacon_six/baureihen/entwicklung.html
- ↑ http://www.dresdner-kameras.de/pentacon_six/baureihen/entwicklung.html
- ↑ http://www.dresdner-kameras.de/pentacon_six/baureihen/entwicklung.html
- ↑ http://www.dresdner-kameras.de/pentacon_six/baureihen/entwicklung.html
- ↑ http://www.dresdner-kameras.de/pentacon_six/objektive/objektive.html