Left-Handers Club Newsletter - 15th April 2003
Hi Mickey
A LEFT-HANDED CAMERA
"When I received news that the Left-Handers' Club were advertising "the world's first left-handed camera", I was compelled to write back, because it isn't!
In the early 1970s I was looking in a camera shop in Hull and noticed something rather different about a camera they were offering in their second-hand section. Unlike all the other cameras I had seen, this one had both the shutter release and the wind-on lever on the left hand side. Yes, it was a left-handed camera!
The name on the camera's plate was EXAKTA, a name I had never heard of before. Since I had not long acquired a credit card, it will be of no surprise to the left-handed reader that before the end of the hour the camera was mine, and it started a 25-year love affair with some remarkable photographic equipment.
The manufacturer of the Exakta was an East German firm called Ihagee, and production of the first Exaktas began in 1933. All their cameras were of the single-lens reflex type, which means that the viewing of the subject was directly through the taking lens. The first Exaktas were for 127 size roll film, which people of my generation and above might remember. I certainly remember this film as being extremely fiddly in use - the spools were very thin and I have memories of the whole film unwinding either on loading or (more exasperating!) on unloading, knowing that my precious pictures were ruined. There were only eight pictures per roll. Ihagee were the first to produce a single lens reflex roll film camera, and continued to produce innovations in camera design for a number of years.
It was believed that Exaktas were much-used in the 1936 Olympic Games, but no record of their use has ever been found. Production of the cameras stopped in 1939 as the factories were taken over by the Nazis for the war effort. In 1945 the main factory was bombed by the Allies, and following the resulting fires and subsequent looting, all the equipment and records were lost. The other main factory was deserted following the advance of the Red Army, and it was only due to the dedication of the few remaining engineers that new tooling equipment was made, and production recommenced in 1948. By now the 35mm cameras were the only ones being made.
However, the East Germans seemed not to be so good at advertising their products as well as others in the West, and eventually other manufacturers, especially the Japanese, were too much competition for Ihagee, and they were taken over in 1970 by VEB Pentacon. The last of the left-handed cameras appeared in 1970, but later models bearing the Exakta name were of entirely different design and bore all the marks of the Praktica.
Why the camera's operation should have been made left-handed is not known. It would be a useful study, perhaps, if a study might be made into how many Exakta owners are or were left-handed. I gather there is a UK-based Exakta owners group - perhaps I'll get on the Internet and see what I can find out ..."
Janice Lamb
(Researched from "Exakta Cameras" by Clement Aguila and Michel Rouah [1989], and from an article "Ihagee, its history until 1945" by Hugo D. Ruys [1984] I am sure that more recent details can be found on the Internet as these works were published before the ending of the Communist regime in Eastern Germany.)
Members letters - Left-handedness' Poem
As it is always great to get your feedback on our newsletters and your stories and thoughts always make fascinating reading, this time we will include the poem "Left-handedness" by our member Tony Hemmings:
Left-handedness
In honour of all left-handed,
Neglected and much abused -
A sinister bunch we are branded,
Left out and unfairly accused.
You 'Righties' are horribly righteous,
Such words as dexterity reign,
Including the ambidextrous,
Adroit and terribly vain.
You say we are gauche and south-paw,
Cack-handed and awkward to watch,
On the pitch we're a troublesome outlaw
And all that we do is a botch.
Bad news in a left-handed marriage,
In compliments, speaking on oath,
On the left is alright for a carriage,
But for 'Lefties', designers are loath.
We're ignored in the kitchen and garden,
With coffee pots, scissors and shears,
They've chosen the wrong side to sharpen,
And a chainsaw will end in tears.
Despite all the efforts to slight us,
We know that we really are deft,
Enough of this 'leftversusrightis',
As there cannot be Right without Left.
Tony Hemmings 2001
http://www.tonespoems.co.uk
We'll be in touch again soon,
Best wishes
Keith and Lauren Milsom
and all at the Left-Handers Club
Go to Our Online Lessons Section • Return to Left-Handers FAQ's
