One of my all time favorite movies is Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window which goes along with my favorite era for 1950's collectibles. I decided to dedicate a shelf in my bookcase to the movie with some easily found 1950's items as seen in the movie. The piece-de -resistance has to be the Exakta camera, which was surprisingly easy to source.
A Kilfitt fern-kilar f/5.6 400mm telephoto lens was used throughout most of the movie when the character L, B, Jefferies played by James Stewart uses his camera with a telephoto lens when looking through his rear window. The 35mm film camera was an Exakta VX Ihagee Dresden the Exakta logo was covered by a piece of black material in the movie. I found a working Exakta VX Ihagee Dresden on eBay at an affordable price. (See currently available listings: http://www.ebay.com/sch/35mm-Cameras/98923/i.html?_from=R40&_sop=12&_nkw=Exakta+VX+Ihagee+Dresden) The Exacta model used in the movie the an early VX model that was on the market in 1953 , there are some slight variations in the later models so compare pictures carefully if you want the same one. More to follow in my next post.
What type of lens mount was used on this camera and lens?
Exakta used a bayonet mount. Some info on the lens mount here http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Exakta_lenses
See also ref to extension rings in an Exakta Manual at this link http://www.cameramanuals.org/exakta/exakta_vx_3.pdf
I’ve an VX Exakta just like this one in the movie. My sin is that I’ve still not seen this legendary movie. It’s on the “to do” list 😉