The Exakta Circle

�Sphere of activity
�We are a group of enthusiastic collectors from all over the world who share a common interest in the products of the Ihagee company. Originally set up in the early 1980s to gather what data could be found about Exakta cameras, the Circle has widened its sphere of activity with time so that we are now dedicated to the collection and use of, and research into all things Ihagee, but we have retained our historic name.
 
�Foundation and Rules
�The Circle was founded in the early 1980s by the late Marc Bramson and Terry Calvert, who is still a member.
The Rules of the Circle were last updated in Winter 2004, and are supplied to new members when they first join. Die Satzung gibt es auch auf deutsch.

Membership
In February 2011 there were about 56 UK members, 22 European and 13 North American and Australasian; or about 90 members in all. This was less than in the previous year; we will try to reverse the trend. Subscriptions are reviewed from year to year; a Membership Application and Renewal form can be downloaded from this site.

 Meetings

The Circle holds two formal meetings each year, one in the springtime and the Annual General Meeting about six months later. These meetings are held in the village of Steventon, near Oxford, to allow the majority of UK members to reach them without a long journey.
Next meetings
The next meeting will take place on May 16th 2012, from around 10.00 to 16.00 hour.  The address is St Michael's Hall (next to St Michael's church), Church Lane, Steventon, Oxfordshire.

Journal
By far the most important method of remaining in contact with all our members is our quarterly journal, the Exakta Times. This carries articles of technical and historic interest, together with notices and reports of meetings and articles on members’ activities.
 NB Der Exakta Times steht auch zur verfügung auf deutsch (nicht ganz korrect aber lesbar :-)
 

�Booklets
�Members can communicate with each other and with the Circle by using the booklets scheme. Until the end of 2011, booklets were simply small blank exercise books circulated amongst members by the booklets co-ordinator in the UK and the booklets coordinator in North America. Members write about their camera activities or problems, add photographs if relevant, and return the booklet to the coordinator. From time to time the coordinator puts together a selection of the entries for publication in Exakta Times. Members can request a booklet from either coordinator if they have something on their mind: but please remember that the system is useless, and valuable information is lost, if booklets are not returned!
 In october 2011 is has been decided to change to what we call e-booklets. Members will get messages from one of the coordinators and can communicate with him with e-mails and text and images attachments. The coordinators will intergate the messages into PDF files and send them around. Members who can't or won't work this way still can contribute in the paper booklet system.
 
�
�This Website
�Besides pages of information of general interest about the Exakta Circle, one of which you are reading now, the website carries reports of meetings and competitions and a regular resume of the contents of Exakta Times.
 
�
�Library
�A very large collection of reference material is held by the Historian, who is always willing to consider members’ requests for copies of documents. Most of these documents are the personal property of the Historian, and most of them are irreplaceable, so access to the original material is very restricted. There are hundreds of brochures, instruction manuals, articles and books, some available in more than one language.
�The Library also contains a Bibliography, listing so far as is known, everything printed about Ihagee and its products., including all the material in the Library and much more besides. The Bibliography was published by parts in Exakta Times starting with issue No. 53, Winter 2003 to No. 63, Summer 2006.
Interested members should contact the committee secretary.

The committee of the Exakta Circle consists of the following members (June 2011):

Terry Calvert       chairman                                              chairman@exaktacircle.org
Chris Fransella    secretary                                              secretary@exaktacircle.org 
Derek Philps        treasurer                                               no e-mail
Peter Longden      historian                                               historian@exaktacircle.org
John Aldridge      booklets coordinator UK                      bookletsuk@exaktacircle.org
Mark Stuecheli    booklets coordinator North America    bookletsusa@exaktacircle.org
Vacancy               Exakta Times editor                             eteditor@exaktacircle.org
Vacancy               webmaster                                            webmaster@exaktacircle.org

Annual fees
Membership fees are very reasonable for 2012/13. In October 2011 the AGM decided to raise
the annual contribution to £ 25 for UK members and £ 28 for overseas.
 

The Club Year goes from the 1st of April to end March. The strongly recommended way to pay for overseas members is PayPal.
Payment details for 2012/13 are on the site in English, deutsch and Français.