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2026-07-21 Exakta V Second of Three

 

    This Exakta V (as in “Five) Versa was the first single lens reflex with an interchangeable pentaprism finder. It came out in 1950. It came to me not working. 
    

I squirted lighter fluid into the rewind tab on the top left of the camera and kept working the action. It came back to life, and I could almost trust it to work with film as long as—
  • it wasn’t too cold
  • you didn’t try the 25 sec on the main shutter dial
  • (strangely the even slower shutter speeds on the second shutter dial work fine)
  • you found a lens for it (it didn’t come with one, but the other two Exaktas I got with it had lenses that would work)
    

    Exaktas are nicely finished, with chrome trim that has held up well considering it is 75-years old. The black paint on the other hand…
    

    The film feeds from the right. The take-up spindle comes out so you can run the film from cassette to cassette. On the feed side that chrome rod has a hooked knife at the top. You unscrew the rod’s head on the bottom and then you can draw the knife to cut the film off.
    

    The camera’s back clips on one end and then has a catch on the other end. The Japanned finished pressure plate has developed a bloom of rust.
    

    When you remove the pentaprism you find you have removed the entire viewing assembly. All that is left in the camera is the mirror. Of course most later cameras that had removable prism’s left the viewing screen in the body so you could use a waist level magnifier (or just use the camera bare for those ground level shots).
    
    Then you find the eye level assembly was made by Sperling, not branded as Exakta.














    The eye level assembly had a nice finish, but black paint does tend to get chipped off.













    The viewing screen is a straight ground glass. Its magnifier gives a bit of a pin cushion distortion, but the view seems bright enough.














The slow speed dial on the right side of the camera’s top seems to work like this—
  • You have to set the main shutter speed dial to “B” or “Z”. 
  • Wind the shutter/film advance lever
  • Wind the second shutter speed dial (on the right side of the finder) until it stops
  • The right dial has (starting at the upper right)  going counter clock wise the numbers are 1⁄5, ½, 1 to 12 but then start again with 1⁄5, ¾, 1 1⁄2, 2, 3, 5, 6. 
    It turns out it is pretty simple. Say you want 1⁄5 sec. You can chose to have that when you press the shutter release, or have the camera shoot at that shutter speed after the self-timer has timed out 12-second.
    It only gets a bit complicated if you must have ¾ second as you have no choice but wait for the self-timer to run out 12 seconds. You can have a shutter speed of 6 seconds immediately, or after a 12-second delay. But you can only have 7,8,9,10,11 and 12 second exposures one way (without a 12-second delay).
    We haven’t covered the horrible shape the mirrors are in (yet they still work). 
    Or why there are two sync twin fittings on either side of the lens on the front of the camera. One is marked “V” and the other is marked “E”. The V is for flashbulbs that needed a bit of a delay (12 milliseconds) between the bulb being ignited and the shutter opening and the E for with no delay (some bulbs and electronic flash).
    Unlike the earlier Exakta II, that had a shutter lock if the waist level hood wasn’t open, this Versa has no shutter lock.

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