OddCameras.com
Exa 1b Half Frame
The
Exa 1b is a 135 film SLR camera, made by VEB Pentacon in former East
Germany. It was produced between 1977-85. The Exa line is a cheaper
version of the Exakta line, with less sophisticated shutters, but with
the same solid build quality. The 1b model introduced M42 screw mount
instead of the Exakta mount.
This is a special model, only built for the East German Police, called
"Täterlichtbildkamera" which means perpetrator image camera, so there
is no doubt about its use.
The main features are:
Shutter: the mirror is one part of a horizontal shutter, speeds: 1/30 - 1/175s and B
Viewfinder: pentaprism, simple matte screen
Light-meter: no
Focus: manual
Film speeds: only ISO memory dial
PC socket, tripod mount. The frame size18×24 is fixed
Some photos:
The original box, the camera body with body cap, German instructions.
Camera body and body cap. Shutter release and PC socket.
Cap taken off.
Camera
back. Viewer and advance lever. To the left of the finder:
switch to release the prism.
Pentaprism deposed. There were different finders.
Camera
bottom. Tripod socket. The ring around the tripod socket opens the back.
Seen
from above. Rewind, speed setting, rewind release (which looks more
lika a shutter release), film counter disk and film advance with film
speed reminder. On ordinary cameras the film counter disk has numbers.
So it's more like a guess.
28mm lens, a good choice for half format.
Film compartment.
This is a very simple SLR camera with the possibility to put good lenses, as M42 lenses are not expensive. I bought it
for its half frame size. It
still works nicely after so many years. Seen today's film prices, half
frames are sought after. This led to high prices for those
models that had been overlooked for many years. Even with its simple
shutter it surpasses Lomo style half frames by ways. So it's a really
nice find.