USSR cameras - why ?

dee

dee

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Many of us have ex-USSR cameras , why ?

Is it simply because they are cost , if not aggro , effective ?

Or because they come from a mysterious idealogy closed to much of the world for decades ?

Those from the former USSR - do you hang on to memories when Japaneses cameras are now inexpensively available ? Or are they a fun flee market cheap project /

Is masochism - from a Leica II / IIIc owner LOL ?

As a 1950s kid with a father steeped in the Cold War in the UK Ministry of Defence , USSR was a scary , unknown quality to me , so there certainly is this mystery issue .

However , I like the specials created from , presumably scrap Fed / Zorki ' Leicas ' and that many derivatives are unique to the Soviet Union . I am also intrigued by the techs ingenuity faced with limited facilities and poor quality materials to create new versions such as my lovely Zenit 1 and Zenit S , I also champion the Zorki S especially in faux Leica guise .

But this is immaterial in respect of Contax / Kiev .
The boundaries are blurred when a camera made in Ukraine is the equal of one made a few years earlier in Germany .

I now have a Kontax which bridges the gap , a genuine bitsa Contax with a Kiev heart - re-uniting two cultures . Using this , or a CLA 1951 KNeB II is equally satisfying .
I will also have a restored Contax III and KNeB III - which will be mildly customised with tan leather .
 

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good question. my guess is nostalgia: time goldens the memories, even bad ones, eventually. would Nazi-Leicas for example be so sought for collectibles if those buying them had recent and first hand experiences of loosing their relatives, friends, getting abused by the system and fearing for your life ? perhaps, I dont mean to moralize anyone.

us later generations (well, I was already ignorant teen when USSR collapsed 1991 and thought it was nothing out of ordinary...) who dont have direct connection to life in USSR can still try sneak to North-Korea for experience similar Orwellian junta. that too is probably nostalgized one day by someone, from safe distance in time. "oh those were the days.. remember when great leader played golf and scored hole-in-one at every hole he played ?" :p
 
Probably be my longest post ever, damm, i have to use up a lot of words.
Good question Dee, i am sure there will be varied and interesting replies, looking foward to reading from some of the long term users here - gee that comes out like a drug problem.

1984 i arrived in Moscow and promptly lost a nikon fe2, left it on the plane - wish it was on illusion -ha.
I had a typical cab ride from sheremet to the metropole hotel - cab driver with bottle of vodka in his lap, to his lips all the way. Spoke to the concierge/doorman/lookout /spook? about my camera and in typical fashion he shrugged his shoulders and said` forget, its gone, i get one for you'
Guy takes me to a store and the only camera i recognise is a zenit.There where a couple of others but i had no idea what they where. So i got a zenit, took it on to London and traded in on a Mamiya ze2 - which i still have.
Fast foward to 1999 and i am at a ISSF shoot, there is a russian guy there with a camera, a zorki 4k, which i recognised as one of the `others' i saw in moscow, we both used the same pistol, a TOZ 35, so we ended up talking and i asked about the camera. He gave me some history so i went and found one [4 not4k]as a sort of momento. I just found them interesting and had an appreciation of how some stuff from the FSU was actually all right.[and i have brought a lot of `western' junk]
Cost plays a part because on the whole you do get more than your few dollars worth.

I was brought up to question the status quo [:eek: no not a communist household] so i always had a curious interest
in the soviet era, that is why i went there alone to see for myself,
discovered it is very cold in winter:)
 
They are, for all their cussedness, amazing bang-for-the-buck cameras. I have a Fed 1 with the 50 lens that I love to use as much as my Leica IIIf. That's the appeal for me.
 
I worked in a camera shop in the 80's and sold Zeniths for 1/4 of the price of Japanese cameras, they sometimes jammed but a quick bang on the counter would often get them working again. FSU cameras were prevalent in the 70's and 80's as low cost alternatives, and now I am middle aged and can (almost) afford to buy the kind of cameras I want, I still have a fascination for these old machines that come from such a different culture to my own. I have travelled in some former FSU countries and always try and hunt down a memento from a camera shop to bring home.
 
I first bought FSU cameras and lenses purely for the low initial cost. Soon after my first one, I started to think of how the Soviet Union had been represented to me as I was growing up and realized that there was a big disconnect between the myths I learned and the reality. Specifically, I was told by almost all of the adults around me that the Soviets were incapable of making consumer goods. At the same time, we were told, they could and were making very high tech weapons to use against us here in the United States.
These FSU cameras/lenses are clear evidence of that fallacy!
I am now using other cameras--Viogtlanders, mainly--more often but the FSU lenses are still my main stays.
Rob
 
I have two FEDs and a Zoki MIR, and I have another Zorki 6 on order from Yuri. I've had a lot of fun with them, they work, the pictures have a unique quality to the (the lenses, I think) and the completely mechanical operation of them really appeals to me. Also, I can't resist the chance to get a working camera for well under $200.00 US. I'll probably get some more before I'm through, because I've found that the cameras are pretty rugged, and after 50 or so years, these scorned cameras really do deliver the goods.

Oh, and one other thing. My daughter lugs around a Canon 5D, which has a monster zoom lens, and weighs as much as my Mamiya 645. The Ukrainian (Russian) cameras, OTOH, are flyweights by comparison, and the FED with the collapsible lens is a real pocket camera!:D

YMMV.

With best regards.

Stephen
 
I had never heard of FSU cameras until I came to RFF. That was all that was talked about in the early days of RFF. I was fascinated to think there were inexpensive camera bodies that would accept good German lenses. Still, I did not take the leap until about two years ago. The problem was by not jumping in right away, I let the price creep up. I had learned to like Zeiss T* lenses, so I went for a Kiev, and have the 50mm, 35mm, 85mm, and 135mm, as well as the turret finder for the Kiev 4am I have.

It's not my carry-everywhere-use-all-the-time-camera, because no RF camera is, nor is any SLR, although I still tend to prefer them for the stable of lenses I have. Nonetheless, I enjoy using it often enough, and that kit is often in my car trunk.
 
the soviet government was a horror. but the cameras and other goods were made by people. it is interesting to see what the people of different places, under different circumstances, come up with.
 
oftheherd said:
I had never heard of FSU cameras until I came to RFF. That was all that was talked about in the early days of RFF. I was fascinated to think there were inexpensive camera bodies that would accept good German lenses. Still, I did not take the leap until about two years ago. The problem was by not jumping in right away, I let the price creep up. I had learned to like Zeiss T* lenses, so I went for a Kiev, and have the 50mm, 35mm, 85mm, and 135mm, as well as the turret finder for the Kiev 4am I have.

It's not my carry-everywhere-use-all-the-time-camera, because no RF camera is, nor is any SLR, although I still tend to prefer them for the stable of lenses I have. Nonetheless, I enjoy using it often enough, and that kit is often in my car trunk.
Click to expand...



Interesting point you make about RFF a few years ago ... there was a lot of FSU activity generally and the Fed 2 seemed to be the camera that a lot of people chose as a first foray.

Personally I find them a little frustrating ... the viewfinders are pretty ordinary and they can be very quirky ... my Iskra comes to mind here! :p

I remember the first time out shooting with my Fed 2 which was my first FSU ... I managed to take about four shots with the lens cap on and halfway through the roll the shutter speed dial came off in my hand! I also discovered that the shutter caps at it's fastest speed :D
 
The humbling thing about using my Fed cameras is that my photos look pretty much the same whether I'm using a $100 Fed and lens, or a $3,000 Leica and lens. Probably had more pure fun with the FSU stuff. :)
 
These are my reasons to use such cameras:
From the technical side:
First reason why is because they are cheap even if they are in good working condition.
The second is they have very good lenses (most of them cloned from prewar german designs and improved with newer glass and coating), that when properly assembled do an excellent job.
Third reason is that you can get lots of spare parts by pennies with the shape of an assembled camera.
Fourth reason is they are all mechanical cameras, then no dependence from batteries.
From the human/personal side:
I cannot (and many other people don´t too) decide which lens with which camera took which picture (unless you use a junk lens with a defective body - in that case all are equal). Then a Leica M would be as good/bad as a Fed 4, or a Nikon F3 the same as a Zenith ET.
IMHO, a good or bad picture depends most on the photographer than on the tools used to get it.

Ernesto
 
The first camera I could afford was a Zenit 3M, back in the late 1960s. So I have a sweet spot for Soviet cameras. My current Zorki-6 is amazingly similar to the 3M.

I got a complete Kiev system for less than $ 220 (Jupiter-12, 11, 9 and Helios-44) - and its image quality compares with the Contarex system inherited from my father. Much better than my pre-war Leica III. So that's why. These cameras deliver the goods for a fair price.
 
I took the trip down FSU lane because I was very intrigued how the designers took the initial Leica designs and brought new features to them. I was hoping to do things with them that I could never do with a Leica, Nikon or Canon because of cost. The simplicity of design is very cool.

I also tried the Kievs to see what the Contax hold and feel was like and fell in love with the design. The total cost of purchase of a three lens system and camera was great.

Sadly the trip was cut way short for a number of reasons. But I've kept the love for Contax and the respect for simplicity of design. Well worth the negative spots.

B2 (;->
 
I've tried. Kiev, Fed and various lenses. But in the end

.) the cameras were missing what attracts me to RFs and classic SLRs in the first place - some feeling of mechanical reliability, this is highly subjective of course, guess I'm a snob.
.) I spend more time trying to find good samples of lenses than the savings was worth. I started from the LTM side which might have been part of the problem.

Don't care about which political environments Feds/Kievs or Leicas were made in. In the end they were made by people like you and me. But I would not carry gear that either has Nazi/SS symbols, KGB or similar written on it.

One day I do want to try Raid, Nicca, and/or Leotax though.

Roland.
 
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I'm from Lithuania and I have to admit that FSU cameras have never been an object of desire for me. Well, after reading a lot on this forum about FSU I bought Zorki 4 and it's fun to use. Quality of J8 is very decent, but for me it's still just a fun. When I could afford Leica and Contax I sold soviet SLR Zenit which was a disaster to use... Those that see a disconnection between two statements - highly capable military industry and poor level of photo equipment should not forget that military industry was the only priority for soviet leaders. For the rest - let's copy what capitalists invented... Zorkis and Feds maybe were OK (if you lucky with your copy), but those were copies anyway...
 
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For me it was mainly the cost. I grabbed some prime working examples with clean lenses for practically nothing. Of course 3 years ago the FSU forum was way more active than now, & GAS was contagious for this newb back then. Glad to see interest from new members it's starting to pick back up somewhat. They are intriguing cameras. They come from an interesting history that I find quite fascinating. I don't use the bodies as much but I find the lenses quite adequate on my Bessa R. I'd probably use them a lot more often if it wasn't for the dim vf. Once you look into a Bessa vf it's hard going back.
 
Thanks - interesting responses .
I wonder when cost effective becomes too expensive as Kiev II / IIa rise in cost and CLA remains the same as a true Contax II ?
But the Contax / Kiev equation seems unique in USSR history in that , initially at least , they wanted a quality product .
 
dee said:
Thanks - interesting responses .
I wonder when cost effective becomes too expensive as Kiev II / IIa rise in cost and CLA remains the same as a true Contax II ?
But the Contax / Kiev equation seems unique in USSR history in that , initially at least , they wanted a quality product .
Click to expand...

Interesting question. I wanted/needed other things more than an FSU camera for a long time, but I always knew if I got one I wanted the Kiev. I almost waited too long, but am happy with what I have. I wish I had a 28mm but just can't justify their costs. It I get to using the Kiev enough, I would probably try to save for 15mm.

But what indeed will happen as FSU of all brands begin to get more expensive as more people want them and there are only so many of the older ones around?
 
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