Classic Cameras Friday! Ihagee Kine Exakta ~ 1936

Hey There;

After a big computer crash, I am back, with my Classic Cameras Friday Section, here is the Ihagee Kine Exakta, a masterpiece from the 30’s. Enjoy

• First 35mm SLR
• $150 with f3.5 Tessar lens in 1936 ($2353 in 2010 dollars)

The Dresden camera company Industrie- und Handelsgesellschaft was founded in 1912. It’s better known by its initials IHG, pronounced eehahgay, or Ihagee, which how the brand appears on its Exakta cameras, as you can see in the photo below.

Ihagee introduced its first SLR in 1920 (a box camera called the Paff). In 1933 they introduced a much smaller version that took 127 roll film which we call the Vest Pocket Exakta, or VP Exakta. (Pockets were big in those days, I guess.)

Leica introduced a still camera that took movie film (ciné film) in 1925, so it was a natural step for Ihagee to make a slightly smaller version of the VP Exakta that took ciné film, and they brought out the Kiné Exakta in 1936.

Nearly at the end of World War II in Europe the Ihagee factory was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden. Like the other Dresden camera company, Zeiss Ikon, they rebuilt and resumed producing the Kiné Exakta after the War. I know mine is pre-War from its serial number, 486171, which places it probably in 1936 or 1937.