Kine Exakta
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| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Type | 35mm SLR camera |
| Lens | |
| Lens mount | Exakta bayonet |
The Kine Exakta was the first 35mm SLR still camera in regular production. It was presented by Ihagee Kamerawerk Steenbergen GmbH, Dresden at the Leipziger Frühjahrsmesse in March 1936. The Exakta name was already used by Ihagee on a roll film SLR camera line since 1933, among these the Vest Pocket Exakta Model B from which the Kine Exakta inherited its general layout and appearance. The word Kine (cine, cinema, movie film) never appeared on the camera itself, only in the instruction manuals and advertising to distinguish it from the roll film variants. Several of its features constitute the foundation for the majority of 35mm SLR cameras produced ever since, although at this stage in an infant state.
The perforated 35mm motion picture film had been used in miniature cameras for more than two decades using the 24x36mm negative format. The single lens reflex principle is even older and was widely used in cameras for the medium format plate- and film material. However, several obstacles had to be overcome to device a useful miniature SLR camera apart from the fact that the film material itself seriously restricted the usefulness of the negative: It is impossible to determine sharp focus on a ground glass for this format with the naked eye - even with a large aperture lens. To overcome this, Ihagee substituted the traditional ground glass focusing screen with a Plano-convex magnifying glass with the flat side facing downwards and ground to form a focusing screen visible magnified in the finder. To further improve focusing accuracy, a small magnifying glass could be swung into place for accurate focusing on a small part of the image. Also to improve focusing accuracy fast lenses were needed, and right from the start Carl Zeiss Jena provided the Tessar 1:2.8 f=5cm, soon to be followed by the Biotar 1:2 5cm and the Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 1:2 f=5cm for the Kine Exakta.
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