Ihagee Dresden Exa Ia Camera

The Exa Ia is a mechanical 35mm SLR made by Ihagee Dresden in East Germany in the 1960s. It was an everyday consumer camera rather than a rarity, and you can still find them fairly easily in Berlin — mine came from a collector, in near-mint condition, for €25.

A Great Starter for Analog Photography

There isn’t much to adjust beyond focus, aperture and shutter speed, and the solid metal body has some real weight in your hands. The shutter button is on the front next to the lens, but that quickly feels natural; wind the film forward and a small counter on top keeps track of your remaining frames. There’s very little separating you from capturing the moment, and that simplicity is very liberating.

Here are the first results on the analog photography journey.