Exakta 6×6 (horizontal)

From Camera-wiki.org
Revision as of 18:05, 16 October 2017 by Hanskerensky (talk | contribs) (Development: refined re-direct)
Jump to: navigation, search

See also the 1953 vertical Exakta 66 and the 1986 West German Exakta 66.

The first Exakta 6×6cm model was released in 1939 by Ihagee in Germany. It makes twelve square-format pictures on a 120 film. The camera features interchangeable lenses, a waist-level viewfinder and a peculiar, very large film-advance lever built onto the base. There is a red window, used to advance a new film to frame 1. The cloth focal-plane shutter has a very wide speed range for the period — 12 seconds to 1/1000th plus B, set on two dials, and has the early electronic Vacublitz flash terminals (one source reports 1/50 as the synch speed[1]).

Development

Interest in the 6×6 film format increased through the 1930s from both consumers and professionals. At first the format was limited to folders such as the Super Ikonta 530/16 and TLR cameras from Rolleiflex, Zeiss Ikon and Voigtländer. Then in 1935 the first 6×6 SLR cameras came to market, including the Reflex-Korelle. In this context, and with their recent experiences with the Kine-Exakta 35mm SLR (released in 1936) management at Ihagee begun their own 6x6 SLR project in 1937.

Willy Teubner was made leader for development from the middle of 1937, and a workshop for prototypes was set up in 1938[2]. What seems to be an early prototype "Ihagee Reflex" 6×6 was seen at auction in 2014, with a Meyer-Görlitz Ihagee-Anastigmat Trioplan 8cm f6.8 lens, and a design much more similar to the Reflex-Korelle than the final Exakta 6×6.[3] Development of new lenses and production of lens prototypes for the camera was carried out at Carl Zeiss Jena at the same time, including a new 1937-designed 6.5cm f6.3 Tessar, 10cm f2 Biotar and 18cm f4 Sonnar (never entered series production), and the 1938-designed 13.5cm f4 Triotar lens. The 8cm f2.8 and f3.5 Tessar lenses used the same design as for the Super Ikonta, Reflex-Korelle and Ikoflex III cameras. Other lenses, such as the Tele-Tessar 18cm and 25cm f6.3 were older designs[4].

The camera was first shown at the Leipzig Spring Fair in 1939, concurrently with the similar but simpler Beier-Flex II. A version of the camera with the 100mm f2 Biotar or 100mm f1.9 Primoplan was also shown, called the Night-Exakta 6x6.[5]. Production was delayed due to problems with the film transport, and did not begin before August 1939. Prices for the camera in 1939 varied depending on the included lens. From 225 RM for the camera with Ihagee-Exaktar 8,5cm f3.5 to 390 RM with the Makro-Plasmat 10,5cm f2.7[6]. The Night-Exakta was significantly more expensive, at 460 RM including the Primoplan 10cm f1.9 or 600 RM including the Biotar 10cm f2.

Already in November 1939 production stopped with only 1500 cameras produced[7]. While problems with the film transport delayed the start of production, it's not clear that this was the reason for ending production. A simpler explanation is that WWII had just broken out in September 1939, and the German industry was changing to a war-time economy. This was stated as part of the reason production of the VP Exakta ended shortly after the Exakta 6×6, in 1940. Production of lenses seems to have continued for a time, with a batch of 100 6.5cm f6.5 lenses starting production as late as March 1941[8]. At the same time it seems the production of lenses overestimated the amount of camera bodies which would be available, based on the amounts produced and the fact that many lenses can be found adapted to other contemporary mounts.

Further developments

After the war, Willy Teubner, now as Technical Director, reintroduced the pre-war Exakta 66 at the 1951 Leipzig Spring Fair (and later at the 1952 Photokina[9]). Certain functions were updated, including an interchangeable finder, but production started based on pre-war parts[10]. The update also seems to have included a new Tessar 80mm f2.8 lens design from 1950[11]. Only about 300 cameras were produced post-war[12], however few traces of these remain. It seems the tooling for new lenses in the pre-war Exakta 6×6 lens mount was used to a much larger degree, however, as the post-war Tessar 80mm f2.8 lens in pre-war 6x6 mount was made in several thousand copies[13]. Later Tessar 80mm f2.8 lenses for the vertical Exakta 6x6 and Exakta 36x24mm actually contain the pre-war mount, adapted to fit. The adapter for 80mm f2.8 Tessar lenses to the Exakta 36x24mm mount can be used to mount any pre-war 6x6 lens to Exakta 36x24mm cameras, and furthermore to other adapters, e.g. to digital cameras.

In the end the pre-war Exakta 6x6 was replaced by a complete redesigned vertical Exakta 66 in 1953 and later, with the Reflex-Korelle and Meister-Korelle, inspired the Praktisix and Pentacon Six models. Through these, the camera's influence can be traced as far as the Pentax 67 discontinued in 2011.

Lenses

Lenses from several makers were advertised, however it is unclear if and how many of the lenses from third parties were produced. Meyer and especially Berthiot lenses are very rare. At least one example of the 10cm f2 Biotar has been noted with a red T-mark, signifying the proprietary Zeiss T-coating. Furthermore it seems coating was applied to at least some 8cm f2.8 Zeiss Tessar lenses, without the T-marking. Possibly due to lens orders with Zeiss exceeding the amount of produced cameras, it is not uncommon to find lenses in 6x6 Exakta mount with adapters to other contemporary 35mm cameras, including Leica mount, M42 mount and Exakta 35mm mount.

Wide angle

Normal

  • Berthiot Flor 7.5cm f3.5
  • Meyer Makro-Plasmat 7.5cm f2.9
  • Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 8cm f2.8 - 4 elements
  • Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 8cm f3.5 - 4 elements
  • Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 8cm f3.5 - 4 elements
  • Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 8cm f2.8
  • Ihagee-Exaktar 8.5cm f3.5 - 4 elements (produced by Schneider-Kreuznach)
  • Meyer Primotar 8.5cm f3.5
  • Meyer Primotar 85mm f3.5 (100 lenses)
  • Meyer Primotar 8.5cm f2.8 (10 lenses)
  • Meyer Megon 8.5cm f2
  • Berthiot Flor 9cm f2.8
  • Carl Zeiss Jena Biotar 10cm f2 - 6 elements
  • Meyer Primoplan 10cm f1.9
  • Meyer Makro-Plasmat 10.5 f2.7 - 6 elements

Telephoto

  • Carl Zeiss Jena Triotar 13.5cm f4 - 3 elements (165 RM)
  • Meyer Primotar 13.5cm f3.5
  • Berthiot Tele 15cm f5.5
  • Meyer Primotar 18cm f3.5
  • Meyer Tele-Megor 18cm f5.5 - 4 elements (144 RM)
  • Carl Zeiss Jena Tele-Tessar 18cm f6.3 - 4 elements (225 RM)
  • Schneider Kreuznach Tele-Xenar 24cm f4.5 - 5 elements (255 RM)
  • Carl Zeiss Jena Tele-Tessar 25cm f6,3 - 4 elements (280 RM)
  • Meyer Tele-Megor 250mm f5.5 (100 lenses)
  • Schneider-Kreuznach Tele-Xenar 30cm f5,5 - 4 elements (220 RM)
  • Meyer Tele-Megor 30cm f5.5 (advertised)
  • Schneider Kreuznach Tele-Xenar 36cm f5,5 - 4 elements (260 RM)

Notes

  1. Wolf H. Döring, "Das Exakta 6×6-Buch" (1941) p. 58
  2. Peter Longden, Ihagee - the Men and the Cameras p. 86, 2011
  3. https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/29643313_prototype-ihagee-reflex-c-1936
  4. Hartmut Thiele, Fabrikationsbuch Photooptik II Carl Zeiss Jena, 2015, p. 313-314
  5. Peter Longden, Ihagee - the Men and the Cameras p. 86, 2011
  6. Exakta - nun auch im Grossformat 6x6
  7. Ibid.
  8. Hartmut Thiele, Fabrikationsbuch Photooptik II Carl Zeiss Jena, 2015, p. 60
  9. Photographische Korrespondenz: Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche undangewandte Photographie und die gesamte Reproduktionstechnik, Volume 90-91 (1954) p. 141
  10. Peter Longden, Ihagee - the Men and the Cameras p. 107-108, 2011
  11. Hartmut Thiele, Fabrikationsbuch Photooptik II Carl Zeiss Jena, 2015, p. 237
  12. Ibid.
  13. Ibid.

Further reading

  • Wolf. H. Döring, Das Exakta 6x6 Buch (1941)

Links