Exakta VX 500 (1964–1966)

A budget Exakta that out-synced the flagships, trading a meter for a metal curtain that fired flash at 1/125.

Overview

There's a particular pleasure in a camera that does one thing better than anything else in its own lineup, and the Exakta VX 500 is exactly that. Released in 1964 by Ihagee under the Exakta brand, this 35mm SLR was built as the entry point to the Exakta VX series — a simpler, less expensive alternative to the Exakta VX 1000 and Exakta VX 5000 that sat above it. But while it gave up some of the frills of its pricier siblings, it kept a party trick that made flash photographers sit up: a vertical-travel metal blade focal-plane shutter that synced electronic flash at 1/125 second, the fastest X-sync of any mechanical SLR of its time.

The VX 500 was produced for a remarkably short run, from 1964 to 1966, making it a comparatively scarce member of the Exakta family. In some markets it was sold simply as the Exakta 500. It's a fully mechanical camera — no battery, no electronics, nothing to fail — and at 2.3 lb (1.0 kg) with the standard 50mm f/1.9 lens mounted, it has the reassuring heft of a tool built to be used, not admired. Modern retrospective reviews describe it as a durable, dependable shooter that works without batteries, which is exactly what you want from a half-century-old mechanical SLR.

What's most striking about the VX 500, though, is what Ihagee chose to put into their budget model. The slow-speed range — 1, 2, 5, and even 10 seconds — was unusual for an entry-level SLR of the 1960s, and it gives the camera a versatility that its more expensive siblings didn't offer. The VX 1000, for all its higher-tier status, didn't go beyond 1 second on the slow end. So the "budget" Exakta actually out-performed the flagship in one meaningful way, a quirk that collectors and users have come to appreciate.

Key Features

Vertical-Travel Metal Blade Focal-Plane Shutter

The heart of the VX 500 is its shutter, and it's a genuine departure from the norm. Most mechanical SLRs of the early 1960s used horizontal-travel cloth curtains, which limited X-sync to around 1/60 second. Ihagee's own vertical-travel metal blade design changed that equation entirely. The blades travel the shorter vertical dimension of the frame, which means they can complete their journey faster — and that translates directly into the 1/125 second X-sync. For anyone shooting flash, this is a meaningful advantage: it gives you more flexibility with ambient light, letting you use flash as fill in brighter conditions without the ghosting that slower sync speeds produce. It's the kind of feature you'd expect on a professional body, not an entry-level model.

Sources differ on the shutter speed coverage: one lists the full sequence from 1/1000 second down to 1 second plus slow speeds, while another gives the complete range including 1/500, 1/250, 1/125, 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2, 5, and 10 seconds. That 10-second slow speed is genuinely unusual for a budget camera of this era, and it makes the VX 500 a surprisingly capable tool for low-light work without a tripod-mounted meter — though you'll need to bring your own light meter, as the camera appears to be meterless (though no source explicitly states this).

1/125 Second X-Sync

This deserves its own mention because it's the VX 500's defining claim to fame. The 1/125 X-sync was, according to available documentation, the fastest of any mechanical SLR at the time. What does that mean in practice? With electronic flash, you can shoot at 1/125 second rather than being stuck at 1/60 or slower. That extra stop of shutter speed means you can balance flash with daylight more naturally, or freeze more ambient motion in a flash-lit scene. For event photographers and anyone working with strobes, this was a genuine selling point — and it's still a practical advantage today when using vintage flash units with a fully mechanical camera.

Microprism Focusing Spot

The fixed pentaprism finder includes a microprism focusing spot, which was a welcome modern touch for 1964. Microprism collars break the image into a shimmering pattern when out of focus and snap to clarity at the point of focus, making manual focusing faster and more accurate than the plain ground-glass screens of earlier Exaktas. The finder also shows shutter speed and aperture, so you can keep your eye to the camera while adjusting settings. It's a small thing, but it makes the VX 500 feel more modern than its 1964 birth date suggests.

Rapid Wind Lever with 180° Throw

Film advance on the VX 500 is handled by a rapid wind lever with a full 180° throw. That's a long, deliberate stroke, which is actually a good thing for reliability — it gives you plenty of leverage to ensure the film is fully advanced and the shutter is cocked. It's not the fastest advance on the market, but it's positive and consistent, and it's less likely to skip or tear sprocket holes than shorter-throw levers on some contemporaries. The camera takes standard 35mm cassettes and includes a frame counter.

Built-In Self-Timer

A delayed-action lever is built into the body, letting you get into your own shots or trigger the camera hands-free on a tripod. It's a mechanical self-timer, so it doesn't depend on any electronics — just wind it and let it run. For a budget camera, this was a welcome inclusion, and it's still functional on most surviving examples.

50mm f/1.9 Isco-Göttingen Standard Lens

The VX 500 typically came with a 50mm f/1.9 lens, which one source identifies as an Isco-Göttingen optic. The f/1.9 maximum aperture is a solid step above the f/2.8 kit lenses that often accompanied budget SLRs, giving you decent low-light capability and a brighter viewfinder image. The trade-off, as collectors note, is that the Isco-Göttingen lens is less common than the Zeiss or Schneider optics that appeared on other Exaktas, so finding a replacement or upgrade in this mount may take some patience. The lens mount itself — the Exakta bayonet — is assumed to be standard for the brand, though the VX 500's specific mount compatibility isn't explicitly documented in available sources.

Historical Context

The Exakta VX 500 arrived in 1964 as part of the Exakta VX series, which had followed the original Exakta VX of 1956. By this point, the Exakta brand was facing increasing pressure from Japanese SLRs, and Ihagee's strategy was to offer a range of bodies at different price points. The VX 500 was the budget option, positioned below the VX 1000 and VX 5000, and it was designed to give entry-level buyers access to the Exakta system without the cost of the flagship models.

Its production run was short — 1964 to 1966 — and it wasn't sold under the Exakta VX 500 name everywhere. In some European markets, it appeared as the Exakta 500. The camera's brief time in production, combined with its distinctive metal-blade shutter, has made it a point of interest for Exakta collectors. It represents a moment when Exakta was still competitive on engineering merit — the fastest X-sync in the mechanical SLR world — even while the broader market was shifting toward the Japanese brands that would eventually dominate.