Exakta Varex

Name: Exakta Varex
Brand: Exakta

Dresden's modular SLR. You could swap finders a decade before Nikon did, and you had to reach for the shutter release with the wrong hand.

Overview

The Exakta Varex is a 35mm film single-lens reflex camera built by Ihagee Kamerawerk Steenbergen & Co. in Dresden. The same works put the world's first 35mm SLR, the Kine Exakta, into photographers' hands in 1936. The Varex arrived as part of a series Ihagee introduced in the late 1940s. What set it apart was one idea: the viewfinder was no longer a fixed part of the camera. The whole viewing system could be lifted off and replaced. Nikon would later adopt interchangeable finders for its professional F-series bodies, but the Varex got there first.

The naming gets messy, so know it before you start shopping. Sources write the camera variously as "Exakta Varex," "Exakta Varex VX," and "Exakta Varex IIa," and these are not interchangeable labels. The Varex VX is documented as produced between 1951 and 1956. The Varex IIa is a later, distinct camera, introduced in 1960 as a direct successor to the Varex and Varex II models and built through 1963. The base "Varex" model has no firmly documented production window in the available research. Read the nameplate carefully, because the three designations describe three different generations of the same family.

All of them share the Exakta bayonet mount. A long list of makers produced lenses and accessories for it, and five separate sources confirm it as the mount across the Varex line. That mount is the practical reason these cameras still get used rather than shelved. The bodies are metal, finished in silver on the VX. The VX measures 151 × 97 × 49 mm with the waist-level finder fitted and weighs 743 g in the same configuration. That is a real camera's heft, not a toy's. vintage-photo.nl described the Varex VX as "as big as a real SLR camera," solidly built with large control buttons and a chrome finish that throws light around the room.

Key Features

Interchangeable Viewfinder System

The interchangeable finder is the Varex's reason for existing. The Varex series added interchangeable viewfinders in the late 1940s, and the early Varex bodies shipped with an elaborate waist-level finder that included a folding magnifier for critical focusing. Flip the finder's wings fully open and the same assembly doubles as a sports finder. One accessory covers slow, deliberate composition and fast action framing without a swap. On the VX, the magnifying optic itself could be detached, and the finder carried a standard Exakta lens mount on top, so a normal lens could be pressed into service as the magnifying optic. Owners who have tried it report strange and occasionally interesting results.

Dual Shutter Speed Dials

The Varex IIa's shutter speed control is not one dial but two: a fast setting dial on the left-hand side handling 1/1000 down to 1/25 sec plus bulb and time, and a separate slow speed dial. One owner writing for everythingvintage.uk called the arrangement "one of the most sophisticated I've seen on a mechanical camera." The split lets the fast dial stay short and quick to index while the slow speeds get their own dedicated control. The same source notes that the click stops between marked speeds allow selection of in-between shutter speeds. That is unusual for a camera of this vintage and gives a careful shooter more exposure latitude than the marked scale suggests.

Exakta Bayonet Mount and External Flange

The Exakta bayonet mount is the backbone of the whole system. Five sources confirm it as the standard fitting across the Varex line, and the breadth of third-party lens and accessory production in that mount keeps these bodies viable today. On the Varex VX, Ihagee added an external bayonet flange to the existing lens flange, expanding what the camera could accept. Lens release is handled by a lever on the left of the lens flange. Typical period pairings include the Carl Zeiss Biotar 58mm f/2 on the VX and the Aus Jena 50mm f/2.8 on IIa kits, both of which turn up regularly on the secondhand market.

Left-Handed Control Layout

Exakta's controls are backwards from what a modern photographer's hands expect. The shutter release sits in what PetaPixel called "this extremely odd location which takes a bit of getting used to," and the left-handed operation of Exakta cameras confounds first-time users as a rule. The layout keeps the film advance and shutter controls where a left hand naturally falls while the right hand stays free on the lens. Nobody picks up a Varex and shoots it fluently on day one.

Focal-Plane Shutter, 1/25 to 1/1000 sec

Shutter speeds run from 1/25 sec up to 1/1000 sec, plus B and T. The specification is consistent across two different Varex models from separate sources: the VX documented by Kamerastore and the IIa documented by everythingvintage.uk. The top speed of 1/1000 sec was genuinely fast for the early 1950s. In practice condition matters more. A Varex that has not been serviced in decades will not deliver accurate speeds at the top end, and the market knows it.

Historical Context

The Exakta name first appeared in 1933 on a roll-film SLR, and three years later the Kine Exakta became the world's first single-lens reflex camera designed for 35mm film. After World War II, Ihagee resumed production in Dresden under Soviet oversight, and the Varex series, with its interchangeable finders, followed in the late 1940s. Nikon would later adopt that finder system for its professional F-series cameras.

The Varex IIa arrived in 1960 as a direct successor to the Varex and Varex II models, with improvements in shutter reliability, viewfinder optics, and mechanical precision. It became the most popular Exakta model and earned a devoted following among serious photographers worldwide. The brand's position did not hold. East German state management, combined with relentless competition from Japanese manufacturers who had learned from and improved upon the Exakta design, gradually eroded the company's market position. The Varex line also sits alongside distinct models that should not be confused with it: the Varex III A, and the separate Exakta Real of 1966 and Exakta RTL 1000, neither of which is a Varex.

Exakta's reach went well beyond the amateur market. Ansel Adams reportedly owned Exakta equipment, and the cameras were widely used in scientific and industrial photography where through-the-lens viewing was essential. The Exakta VX also turns up in Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (1954). One writer described finally acquiring "my ideal Rear Window Exakta."

Collectibility & Value

The Exakta Varex VX is a popular vintage 35mm film camera because of its appearance. The chrome body and the sheer visual presence of the thing do a lot of the work. The condition problem to watch for is shutter speed accuracy. A forum thread titled "WTB: Exakta Varex/VX with accurate shutter speeds (!)" shows it plainly: the shutter is the weak point on these old cameras, and buyers actively hunt for serviced examples. A clean example from a specialist seller was described as firing correctly across all speeds with all controls and film transport working as expected, aperture blades clean and snappy, and the Exakta mount connection clean and secure. That is the standard to hold a seller to.

CLA service is available from Gejza Dunay, whose certificates for Varex bodies note whether the speeds are within tolerance. Given the age of the line, a documented service history is worth more than a low asking price. Active listings turn up regularly at KEH, Kamerastore, htf-store.com, vintagecamerahut.com, and Catawiki. No specific current market prices were captured in the research for this page, so treat any figure you see as unverified until you check completed sales yourself.

Market Value

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│ EXAKTA VAREX                                                    Nov 2026 │
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│ High      $349                                    Latest            $140 │
│ Median    $97                                     Trend                — │
│ Low       $20                                     Volume          ~13/mo │
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│   $400 ┤                                                                 │
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│         2026-01                      2026-04                      2026-08│
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