John Hudson wrote:
>I thought that Exacta cameras and lenses were highly regarded in the UK or
>at least they were in the mid to late 60's and early 70s. They were from
>east Germany?
Yes, made by Ihagee, Dresden. In our shop they were regarded as
old-fashioned, tinny and anachronistic even as early as 1963, when I started
there. One of my first sales was of a second-hand one and I was
congratulated on shifting it by the manager. Like the Praktica and Edixa, it
looked okay until you picked it up - it's that "feel right" thing again, or
not in this case. We had just one regular customer who used them and we used
to keep back any used Exakta bits and pieces for his first refusal. Saw a
few of his pictures but I don't remember them looking anything special.
We stocked a few Exa I cameras (that Domiplan again!) because they were so
cheap for an s.l.r. but I found them very unpleasant and irritating to
handle.
Paradoxically the Ihagee stuff wasn't liked for its left-handed design but
we all liked the Alpa 9D which was obviously based on the Exakta's
configuration, but there was a vast difference in quality, feel - and price!
Sorry if it's all OT, i.e. no airyplane content :-)
Regards,
Keith Berry (Birmingham, England)
keith_r.k.berry@xxxxxxxxxx
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