Exakta Varex IIb

This is a camera that my father bought after I left home, so I never really saw him using it.  It's a 35 mm SLR manufactured by Ihagee, Dresden (former East Germany), between 1963 and 1967. It's very well engineered, but has some curious aspects of design, in particular the shutter release that has to be operated with the left hand, but also the presence of 3 flash connection sockets. The lens is by Carl Zeiss Jena, 50 mm, f/2.8 - apparently Ihagee did not manufacture lenses.  The pentaprism can be removed and replaced by a waist-level viewfinder.

Ihagee was responsible for the first ever 35 mm single lens reflex camera, the Kine Exakta 1 in 1936.