Exakta VX 1000 (1967–1970)

Name: Exakta VX 1000
Brand: Exakta

The Exakta VX 1000 is a 35mm film SLR built by Ihagee Kamerawerk in Dresden, East Germany, and produced from 1967 to 1970. It is generally treated as the last and most refined of the original mechanical Exaktas, the end of a line that goes back to the Kine Exakta of 1936. Of the original models, only the simpler VX500 stayed in production longer. The VX 1000 came in a silver metal body, focused manually, and had a built-in light meter.

The shutter is a horizontal focal-plane double-cloth type. Speeds run from 1/1000 second down to 12 seconds plus Bulb, split across dual control dials. The fast speeds sit on a left-hand dial that lifts and turns to set. As on other Exaktas, the slow speeds go through the self-timer mechanism, which is one of the design's long-standing quirks. The finder hood, pentaprism, and focusing screens are interchangeable. The camera takes Exakta-mount lenses from a 20mm super-wide up to 1000mm catadioptric mirror optics, with fully automatic diaphragms on many focal lengths between 20mm and 300mm. Some lenses even carried their own shutter release button, which doubled as a depth-of-field preview when pressed lightly. The VX 1000 brought a number of user-friendliness improvements over earlier Exaktas, though by the late 1960s the basic design was already showing its age next to the rising Japanese SLRs. One reviewer called it "a high-end but dated camera from the original Ihagee camera works," and Camera Collector noted that the modern Exakta SLRs had a good run against other DDR and Soviet makers before the Japanese overtook them.

Surviving documentation is decent on the broad strokes but thin on hard numbers. Dimensions and weight are only recorded for one specific configuration, roughly 153mm long, 88mm thick, and 116mm high, at 953 grams with a Travemat prism and Pancolar lens fitted. Nothing is given for the bare body. No original retail price, ISO range, or viewfinder magnification figures specific to the VX 1000 have surfaced. A pre-series example has turned up at auction, noted as needing shutter attention, so a prototype variant exists. No serial ranges or production quantities are documented. Today the camera is a sought-after collectible. A refurbished example has been listed at €69, and one owner reported buying a body with a Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2.8 for €108. That is a common pairing, along with the Carl Zeiss Jena Pancolar 50mm f/2.