Camera review: The Exa Ic

The camera

This review is about the Ihagee Exa Ic single lens reflex camera. Ihagee from Dresden in Germany is perhaps most well known for their Exakta line of cameras but they also manufactured the Exa line of cameras alongside the Exaktas. Three models were produced, the Exa (1951-1962), the Exa I series (1962-1987) and the Exa II (1960-1969). The Exa and Exa I are basically different versions of the same camera with interchangeable view finders. The Exa II was a simplified camera that was produced alongside the Exa and Exa I.

Ihagee Exa Ic fitted with an Exaktar 55mm f/1.4

All Exa cameras, with the exception of the Exa Ib and Ic, use the Exakta mount that Ihagee introduced with their Exakta cameras. The Exa Ib and Ic use the M42 mount, enabling the use of loads of M42 lenses from all kinds of manufacturers. As with the preceding Exa Ia, the position of the shutter button is located on the left side of the camera body. This is a leftover from the early Exakta designs, kept in place to be able to use the same automatic aperture lenses that the Exakta uses. As the Exa Ib and Ic use M42 lenses this was not a necessity any longer but in order to simplify production the shutter button stayed where it was.

These Exa cameras have a guillotine type shutter rather than the more usual focal-plane shutter. This results in slower shutter speeds than we are used to these days with a modest top speed of 1/175th of a second.

Specifications

Camera:                Ihagee Exa Ic

Built:                    1985-1987

Mount:                  M42

Shutter speeds:     1/30th - 1/175th of a second, B

Self timer:            no

Size:                     130 mm wide, 97 mm high* and 46 mm deep

Light metering:     no

Hot shoe:              no

Battery:                none

* with the pentaprism viewfinder fitted

Shooting

My copy is an Exa Ic built in the mid-1980s by VEB Certo-Kamerawerk Dresden under license from Ihagee. At that time both Ihagee and Certo were part of the VEB Pentacon conglomerate. Certo built the last series of the Exa Ib and all of the Exa Ic models. Certo built Exas can be identified by the letter C before the serial number.

I managed to obtain my Exa Ic together with an Exa Ib I have yet to shoot. All Exa Ic models have a beautiful black finish. This Exa is pristine and works like a charm. I just love the simple smooth lines of these cameras.  

Using this camera feels very intuitive apart from the shutter button which as mentioned is located on the left side of the camera body. I've fitted the Exa Ic with an Exaktar 55mm f/1.4 lens (no relation with Ihagee for as far as I am aware as I believe this particular lens was built by Sankor), loaded up some Fomapan 200 and went off to the Lake Naarden nature preserve.

All in all I am pretty pleased with the performance of the Exa Ic. When I reviewed the Exa Ia I stated that I was thinking of adding an Exa Ib (or Ic) to my collection to use in combination with my M42 lenses. I aquired both. :-) 

Images

Fellow photographer Pedro and his Exakta