Made in Dresden, West Germany in 1934 this is the B model of the Ihagee Exakta for vest pocket 127 roll film. The B added the slow speed wheel on the right hand side of the top plate, and this being a later version includes the winder thumb lever.

This particular camera was the cheapest I could find on eBay that looked in good condition - it was sold as ‘untested’, but the curtain looked in good condition from the photos so I took a chance. A few days later the parcel arrived, and it seemed to work perfectly throughout the speed range including the slow ones!

I had a roll of Shanghai GP3 ISO100 in the fridge - the reason for looking for a new 127 camera (instead of using one I already had!). The last roll of this batch suffered from a thin backing paper, so I had been reluctant to use it, but what is the point in not shooting with it?

Another quirk with GP3 is there have been instances in production where the backing paper is backwards! This was one such roll! Whilst loading the film, and advancing to the first frame expecting to see 1, but an 8 appears in the window!. I only got 7 frames from the roll so I assume the leader and footer are different lengths.

Anyway - on to the images…

Composition is not easy unless mounted on a tripod as the waist level viewing screen, although large, is not very bright. Even opening the Tessar lens up to f3.5. The shooting experience reminded me of the Pilot 6 which was the same. It needs to be used on a bright day to see anything.

These first two were the best of the roll, and I am very pleased with them. Considering this is a 90 year old camera, the quality is excellent. When you factor in the expired film, no tripod to aid composition, and this was the first time it was tested.

All of the 7 exposures came out ok, showing that the shutter speeds are still correct, and focus accurate. It is just a shame I did not really enjoy using it! If the shooting experience is good, the camera feels so much better.

To be honest I didn’t think this one was going to come out, as it was rather dark in there. You can tell the aperture was wide open, but for a handheld shot at 1/50th and not being able to see through the viewfinder, it is not too bad!

VP Exakta - Shanghai GP3

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