Photographica Pages

An online guide to collectable cameras and related stuff

Ihagee Exakta Varex (V)

In 1950 Ihagee released the Exakta Varex. The name Varex was not available for their use in the US, so models those models were marked Exakta V.

Prior to the introduction of the Exakta V, all of the Exaktas came with a fixed waist level finder. Carl Zeiss Jena had developed the pentaprism that is the standard today for eyelevel viewing, giving an erect image that is not reversed like a mirror. It was first used in their early Contax SLR cameras, and later sold as an accessory which fit over the waist level finder on Praktiflex and Exakta cameras.  The Exakta V was fitted with a removable finder, accepting either the waist level finder or the new pentaprism.

Previous models of Exakta have a safety feature which locks the shutter release when the waist level finder is closed to prevent accidental firing of the camera. The Exakta V retains this feature, although it was later dropped in favor of a shutter release guard. 

This model was on the market for only a short time, so there are no production variations know. Serial Numbers run from 667000 to 692000.