Exakta Varex VX

The Exakta Varex was made by Ihagee/Jhagee in Dresden, it is a decendant of one of the first SLR cameras, the VP Exakta. The Varex uses standard 35mm film and can be used from canister to spool or canister to canister. The latter allows you to end a roll half way through and not lose any exposures due to the built in film cutting knife.

The Exakta uses the Exakta bayonet mount, as such
there is a nice variety of lenses, made by various companies from Carl Zeiss to Oude Delft, who made very good lenses but they are now rare and command a very high price. I own a A Shacht Ulm Travegon 35mm f3.5, which is a nice lens for a generally fair price. The Exakta Varex VX has the ability to use different finders, such as a waist level finder or prism, or even a metered prism made by a third party.

The Exakta cameras are known for unreliability, however mine works very well, My Exakta VX was imported into Holland when it was new by Heynderickx which was the Dutch importer, I bought mine in Holland in November,it is still working as I write this. Over all it is a very competent camera with a lot of quirks but with an unreliable background. So buy one if you want to have to repair/replace it after you've bought it or used it for a while.