Stumbled across this on a photography forum.
All the bells, dials and whistles on this one. I handled her once.
Nice! But surprisingly heavy. The impression of weight (and a lasting
impression of value.. what a make!) was increased by its
relatively compact size.
Am I getting it right that "what a make" here might mean something like, what a great composition of the impression of weight and the lasting impression of value?
I did a quick google research and found absolutely nothing in the Internet on this usage of the word. And it's definitely not "what make is it?" sort of a thing.
Best Answer
The phrase "What a X!" is usually used to express that X is really great, or that X epitomizes the definition of X (e.g. "What a nice car!", to express appreciation of a well-made vehicle, or "What a dick!", to express frustration with a person not currently present).
"Make" here refers to the make of camera (the most frequent use of this sense of the word "make" in English is in describing the "make" of a car; usually summed up by simply giving the name of the brand: Ford, Saturn, Toyota, etc.).
So, in this case, the person is saying "This is a really nice variety of camera!". It's an exclamation of pleasant surprise.