On February 13, 1945 -
Dresden, Germany was attacked by WWII forces that almost obliterated Europe's most beautiful city. Unfortunately, this included the Ihagee factory, maker of Exakta cameras. Most of Ihagee's records pertaining to camera production were destroyed in the resulting fires. Practically all of the existing factory data for the years 1912 to 1945 was gone in a day. Shame on you Adolf!
This single historical event transformed prewar Ihagee and Exakta collecting into one of the most interesting fields in 20th century photohistory!
Why? Think about it - anyone can collect cameras and acquire a fairly complete 'run' of models by the likes of Leitz, Nikon, Zeiss... It's not difficult and takes little thought. Buy a book and go shopping for all the cameras within. Your collection might be expensive but you don't have to know very much and in no time at all you'll be considered a connossieur - your friends will fall over when they see your collection - it is almost complete!
If you were writing a book on camera production including serial numbers, you would immediately go to the factory and ask for copies of their models and serial numbers. In a well organized factory archive, most of the work would be done for you - just copy it down for your new book (you might have to pay for Xerox copies). If the author didn't make any historical or numerical errors, you can collect cameras without thinking. By the way, I'm not making fun of the collectors of other brands, I'm just stating a fact. ;-) I've managed to make mainstream camera collecting sound boring but this is what makes Exakta collecting attractive to some - the mystery, the intrigue and of course, a huge variety of quality equipment from numerous contributing manufacturers.
Since the Ihagee factory records were destroyed - there is no 'easy' information.
Exakta collectors must rely on each other, clubs, existing publications, advertisements etc in an effort to piece together an accurate representation of the Ihagee factory's production.The telephone, e-mail, snail mail and photographs are very handy tools as well. Ihagee cameras are the ultimate challenge in 20th century camera collectibles! Few serious Exakta collectors are without numerous research materials in their personal library to aid in making educated guesses about this field. Your collecting friends are always one of your greatest assets. I can tell you one thing about Ihagee products with absolute certainty - nobody knows it all and nobody has seen it all. Thus, you never know what you're going to find - it's fantastic!
Go to the next page of this series to take part in a typical Exakta investigation... the 'house brand' 54mm Exaktar lens. The 54mm Ihagee Exaktar lens was made under contract by an anonymous lens maker. Who was it?
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