13 and 13 researched events on one shared scale. Ihagee 1912–present, Plaubel 1902–present.
The axis stretches where either maker has research and collapses where neither does, so a year sits opposite the same year on both. Event counts differ because research depth differs, not because one company did less.
Hugo Schrader founded Plaubel & Co. in Frankfurt after training at Voigtlander and working for Dr. R. Krugener. The business began as a dealer-maker of cameras, lenses, and accessories, taking the more memorable Plaubel surname from Schrader’s brother-in-law.
Plaubel GmbH 1902 · Plaubel-Kameras aus Frankfurt (2x aktualisiert) · Plaubel
After several years of lens activity, Plaubel introduced the Precision Peco, the first camera identified in the researched chronology. The Peco name later became the durable center of the company’s professional view-camera business, although the 1909 machine was not the postwar monorail system.
Plaubel & Company Camera Listing · Plaubel-Kameras aus Frankfurt (2x aktualisiert)
Plaubel showed its new Makina in 1911 and introduced it commercially in 1912. Crossed scissor struts let a compact plate camera extend into a rigid working position. Conventional and stereo forms appeared, beginning the product name most closely associated with Plaubel.
Plaubel GmbH 1902 · Plaubel-Kameras aus Frankfurt (2x aktualisiert) · Plaubel
Before Exakta, Ihagee built an unusually broad range of plate, folding, roll-film, stereo, travel, and reflex cameras. Photorex, Viktor, Patent Duplex, Ultrix, Corona, Paff, Patent Klapp Reflex, and Nachtreflex show a factory learning many formats and mechanisms rather than waiting for one celebrated invention.
Ihagee Kamerawerk Katalog 1914 · IHAGEE: Its history until 1945 · Ihagee Non-Exakta Camera Types
Johan Steenbergen founded the Industrie- und Handelsgesellschaft in Dresden in spring 1912. The shortened Ihagee name soon entered formal use. In 1918 he joined with Emil Englisch and six experienced woodworkers to form Ihagee Kamerawerk Steenbergen & Co., bringing wooden camera construction more fully inside the business.
Geschichte des Ihagee-Kamerawerks 1912-1976 · Ihagee Kamerawerk Katalog 1914 · IHAGEE: Its history until 1945
A purpose-built works on Schandauer Strasse opened in 1923 and expanded as Ihagee grew. The factory combined woodworking and precision camera assembly while relying on outside optical makers for lenses. Its mature 1930s catalogs paired established plate and roll-film families with increasingly sophisticated reflex cameras.
Ihagee-Kameras, Juli 1937 · IHAGEE: Its history until 1945 · Ihagee Non-Exakta Camera Types
Goetz Schrader joined the firm in the mid-1920s and soon directed camera development. The Makina I and II matured into 6.5x9cm press cameras with rangefinding and interchangeable lenses, while Makinette and Roll-Op models extended Plaubel into smaller plate and roll-film formats.
Plaubel Makina I (6,5 x 9 cm) · Plaubel Makina II · Plaubel-Kameras aus Frankfurt (2x aktualisiert) · Plaubel Makina II by Jo Lommen
Karl Nuchterlein's 127-roll-film Standard Exakta appeared in 1933. The Kine Exakta followed in 1936 with a 24x36 mm frame, focal-plane shutter, waist-level finder, and interchangeable-lens bayonet. Together they turned Ihagee's reflex experience into a compact, extensible camera system.
Instructions for using the Kine-Exakta · Kine Exakta camera · Ihagee-Kameras, Juli 1937 · Die 35mm-Exakta-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden · IHAGEE: Its history until 1945
Camera production largely yielded to wartime subcontracting as Nazi authorities seized control of the foreign-owned firm. Steenbergen left Germany in 1942, Nuchterlein was lost in military service, and the February 1945 bombing of Dresden destroyed the Schandauer Strasse factory, forcing a physical and institutional restart.
Short history of Ihagee · Die 35mm-Exakta-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden · IHAGEE: Its history until 1945
Goetz Schrader assumed leadership after Hugo Schrader died in 1940. Wartime production shifted toward precision military equipment, and bombing seriously damaged the Frankfurt works in 1944. The rebuilt postwar company resumed camera making while redirecting much of its energy toward technical view cameras.
Workers restarted Kine Exakta production at the former Delta works in 1945, first using a mixture of surviving and newly made parts. Exakta II followed in 1949, and the 1950 Exakta Varex made interchangeable waist-level and eye-level finders central to a professional 35 mm system.
Geschichte des Ihagee-Kamerawerks 1912-1976 · Short history of Ihagee · Uebersicht Exakta-/Exa-Modellreihen · Die 35mm-Exakta-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden
The simpler Exa brought the Exakta bayonet and interchangeable finder idea to a less costly body, while Exakta Varex, VX, IIa, IIb, VX 1000, and VX 500 carried the main line forward. A large outside-supplier lens and accessory network made the cameras especially adaptable for close-up, scientific, and technical photography.
Short history of Ihagee · Uebersicht Exakta-/Exa-Modellreihen · Die 35mm-Exakta-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden · Die Exa-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden
Ihagee revisited 6x6 after the war with a redesigned vertical Exakta, shown in 1952 and produced from 1953. It offered an ambitious medium-format SLR package, but persistent film-transport trouble ended the run after roughly 2,500 cameras, leaving 35 mm as the company's durable system.
Uebersicht Exakta-/Exa-Modellreihen · Die 35mm-Exakta-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden
Postwar Peco cameras moved Plaubel toward modular studio and technical work. Supra, Junior, and Universal bodies offered monorail focusing, movements, revolving backs, interchangeable bellows, and multiple formats. The German Makina continued through the IIIR before ending around 1960.
100mm lens for a Plaubel Makina IIIR camera · Plaubel-Kameras aus Frankfurt (2x aktualisiert) · Plaubel
Steenbergen established a West German Ihagee company that contested the Ihagee and Exakta names with Dresden. It introduced the Exakta Real in 1966 and later marketed Japanese-built Twin TL cameras. The western company was legally and industrially distinct from the Dresden works and was liquidated in October 1976.
Geschichte des Ihagee-Kamerawerks 1912-1976 · Short history of Ihagee · Exakta without Exakta mount
The Brooks-Plaubel Veriwide 100 combined an American wide-angle concept with manufacture by Plaubel in Germany. Its fixed Schneider Super-Angulon 47mm f/8 covered seven 6x10cm frames on 120 film, creating a specialized panoramic camera rather than a new interchangeable system.
Plaubel introduced the Makiflex and Pecoflex large-format reflex cameras in the early 1960s, then launched eight Peco Profia format/model combinations across 1967 and 1968. The Profia platform’s movements, posts, rails, bellows, boards, and backs defined the company’s mature professional system.
Pentacon took control of Ihagee development in 1964, incorporated the Dresden company into the combine in 1968, and ended its independent factory identity in 1970. Name-rights disputes encouraged VX and Elbaflex export markings, while product planning shifted toward Pentacon's Praktica architecture.
Geschichte des Ihagee-Kamerawerks 1912-1976 · Die 35mm-Exakta-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden · Die Exa-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden
Pentacon produced the Praktica L-derived Exakta RTL 1000 through 1973 and continued the Exa line after Ihagee disappeared as an independent works. Exa Ia, M42 Exa 1b, and Exa 1c reached 1987, with later assembly at Certo, extending the product lineage without restoring Ihagee as the manufacturer.
Geschichte des Ihagee-Kamerawerks 1912-1976 · Uebersicht Exakta-/Exa-Modellreihen · Die 35mm-Exakta-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden · Die Exa-Baureihe des Ihagee-Kamerawerkes Dresden
Current registry-derived data lists Plaubel GmbH in Frankfurt as active under HRB 15086. That status shows legal continuity but does not demonstrate present camera manufacture after the 2017 end of documented sales and repair. Any publication update should recheck the official register.
Plaubel GmbH (GmbH) - Frankfurt am Main · Plaubel ist Geschichte
Goetz Schrader sold Plaubel to Kimio Doi’s Japanese group in 1975 and remained involved in management. The Frankfurt professional-camera business continued, while the new ownership also prepared a Japanese revival of the Makina name rather than simply restarting the old German press-camera line.
Ihagee West entered liquidation in 1976 as Exakta-badged Japanese OEM cameras complicated the final product boundary. The old Steenbergen partnership was deleted in 1996. Later uses of Exakta are trademark chapters, while the historic Dresden and West German camera companies no longer operate as manufacturers.
Geschichte des Ihagee-Kamerawerks 1912-1976 · Short history of Ihagee · Exakta without Exakta mount
A Goetz Schrader scissor-linkage patent was filed in 1977, and the Japanese-designed Makina 67 reached the market soon afterward with a fixed 80mm Nikkor. W67, 670, and 69W Proshift variants followed. Japanese contract production ended in 1986 amid disruption at Mamiya.
Plaubel Makina 67 Instruction Booklet · Plaubel Makina 670 Instruction Booklet · Patents Assigned to Plaubel Feinmechanik und Optik Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung · Plaubel-Kameras aus Frankfurt (2x aktualisiert) · Plaubel
Parts production for German professional cameras was reportedly transferred to Wilhelm Gutmann in 1979, while Plaubel continued assembly, distribution, and service. Late Profia PL1, PL69D, NT, and ZT models kept the view-camera system available into the 2010s.
Museums, specialist researchers, and international Exakta groups now preserve Ihagee cameras, manuals, catalogs, and specimen data. Their work keeps the Kine Exakta and its broad system visible while also clarifying the separate factories, mounts, OEM bodies, and legal entities that accumulated around the famous names.
Geschichte des Ihagee-Kamerawerks 1912-1976 · Kine Exakta camera · IHAGEE: Its history until 1945
A contemporary report stated that Plaubel ended sales and repairs for Plaubel, Toyo, and Horseman products on May 31, 2017. This is the best-supported endpoint for the operating photographic business, not proof that the registered legal entity dissolved on the same date.
