I bought this marvellous camera about two years ago. It is far from being in mint condition, but still works beautifully. Sometimes provenance can be more important that looks.

The Kine Exakta is regarded as being one of the world’s first SLR cameras, and this variant spelt with a “c” was probably exported to the USA. It was designed to use 35mm film that had become standard in the cinema, hence the name Kine. It was manufactured by the legendary Ihagee camera company in Dresden, which was largely destroyed during World War II.

Mine is an early postwar version of the camera. The differences between it and the prewar models are fairly minor. The lens is a f/3.5 50mm Tessar lens manufactured by Carl Zeiss in Jena. The red T indicates that it was coated. The focusing distances on the lens are measured in feet.

All photos were taken around…