john_van_v
Well-known
I found this article very convincing, even if the dates seem a little rounded off.
[FONT=Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif]"The Fed 1 camera may not have been a Leica copy at all but a Soviet home grown design" ... The "Oskar Barnack Leica may have been a product of industrial espionage" ... "[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif] it all begins to make sense, the early Leica I, II are in fact just clones of Soviet produced cameras."
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[FONT=Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif]"The Fed 1 camera may not have been a Leica copy at all but a Soviet home grown design" ... The "Oskar Barnack Leica may have been a product of industrial espionage" ... "[/FONT][FONT=Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif] it all begins to make sense, the early Leica I, II are in fact just clones of Soviet produced cameras."
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xayraa33
rangefinder user and fancier
those brainy slavic people invented everything.
nzeeman
Well-known
at first i thought that it is just a junk article - but when i read it carefully - it could be some truth in it... for example "Against this sort of confusing industrial history and if you throw in the fact that Fed 2 with its improved shutter and ergonomic layout appeared in prototype form in 1939 long before Leica came up with anything similar. " This is very true soviets had very interesting inventions in that time but lacked money for mass production. alsoif they copied leica - why did they put zeiss lens copy on camera. wasnt it easier to copy leica lens too?
john_van_v
Well-known
Many say the Zork 3m is the nearly-perfect camera, and the 4k is an impressively industrialized version of it. What are the dates on the 4s? This would make the Zork the proto-Leica, rather than the FED.
My problem with the FED theory is that the FED factory was run by the Soviet version of the CIA, enough said? The CIA pretty much allowed 9/11 to happen.
My problem with the FED theory is that the FED factory was run by the Soviet version of the CIA, enough said? The CIA pretty much allowed 9/11 to happen.
xayraa33
rangefinder user and fancier
Nikola Tesla gave the drawings of a Leica like camera to a russian friend on his trip to Moscow in 1908.
Gabriel M.A.
My Red Dot Glows For You
Ah, good ole Tesla. He was the Cray to Edison's Microsoft and Westinghouse's IBM.
john_van_v
Well-known
good friend of the cosina-guy too !!
Spider67
Well-known
Could be a well made mockumentary!
fact is that the Germans copied the concept of paratroopers from the Soviets (and were inspired in their ideas of divebombing by the Americans)
but a Leica as an areial recon camera? Cameras used for that were buly, witha good reason.
...On the other hand who knows if some useful features (not the whole design!) of the Zorki did not make their way back to Leitz. Anyway even Russina writers who describe Warphotographers in their accounts (Simonov) provide them with Leicas.
To me the fact that the lenses were not Leitz designs but Sonnars gives more proof to the idea of the soviets copying the Germans: Thake the best from every side just like the designers of the Nikon RF did.
fact is that the Germans copied the concept of paratroopers from the Soviets (and were inspired in their ideas of divebombing by the Americans)
but a Leica as an areial recon camera? Cameras used for that were buly, witha good reason.
...On the other hand who knows if some useful features (not the whole design!) of the Zorki did not make their way back to Leitz. Anyway even Russina writers who describe Warphotographers in their accounts (Simonov) provide them with Leicas.
To me the fact that the lenses were not Leitz designs but Sonnars gives more proof to the idea of the soviets copying the Germans: Thake the best from every side just like the designers of the Nikon RF did.
john_van_v
Well-known
Whew!! more "evidence" from Matt's photo site
And so are those copy-cat Leicas!!
I find it ironic that the quintesential rangefinder design was stolen from criminals -- true poetic justice
And so are those copy-cat Leicas!!
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The Leica IV of 1934~1935 had a long-base, combined VF/RF. It probably infringed on the Contax patents then in effect. The Fed-2 looks very similar to this improved camera, and I suspect the Russians did not care about the Contax patents.
rolleistef
Well-known
it's indeed curious how close to the Leica IV the Fed II is. I'm sure Leica copied it to make to make the M, don't you think? Only the interchangeable finder that was designed for the IV isn't there.
The Leica IV superficially looks like the M3, but the latter's finder is much more complex with the projected framelines. And of course, the Shutter was much different. Non-rotating!
The Leica IV more looks like it was designed to compete with the Contax II, but production was held up by patents. I think the Fed engineers didn't care what the German Lawyers had to say in 1939...
The Leica IV more looks like it was designed to compete with the Contax II, but production was held up by patents. I think the Fed engineers didn't care what the German Lawyers had to say in 1939...
dee
Well-known
And I wonder why Leica did not copy the Zenit 1 for it's first SLR !
[ but they did a clever bit of redesign to create the 1st truly compsct SLR - i love mine ! Now did Leica help them with it ... !?]
I thouhght that I was the crazeee one !
[ but they did a clever bit of redesign to create the 1st truly compsct SLR - i love mine ! Now did Leica help them with it ... !?]
I thouhght that I was the crazeee one !
Looks like the Fed came about in 1934, the Leica D in 1932.
http://fedka.com/Frames/Main_Frame.htm
This is "Star Trek"- no, more like the "Time Tunnel".
http://fedka.com/Frames/Main_Frame.htm
This is "Star Trek"- no, more like the "Time Tunnel".
john_van_v
Well-known
This is great, it just goes to show how fascinating the Russian/Soviet story is, where the German pre-war connection is just a single event.
I started to buy into his ideas until he mentioned FED, and as I wrote above, there is no way I can believe that "intelligence" types could ever do anything intelligent. All they good at is hurting people, and as such lack the collaborative social mental facilities that are necessary for excellent engineering: the camera world. (In that sense, engineering is an art.)
I took a look at the author's entire web site, and he has taken some excellent portraits of (I assume) his wife and son with a Helios lenses. I would provide links, but they are in this Jalbum javascript setup.
He is also fascinated by antique transportation, such as trolleys and steam tractors.
We should get him over here.
I started to buy into his ideas until he mentioned FED, and as I wrote above, there is no way I can believe that "intelligence" types could ever do anything intelligent. All they good at is hurting people, and as such lack the collaborative social mental facilities that are necessary for excellent engineering: the camera world. (In that sense, engineering is an art.)
I took a look at the author's entire web site, and he has taken some excellent portraits of (I assume) his wife and son with a Helios lenses. I would provide links, but they are in this Jalbum javascript setup.
He is also fascinated by antique transportation, such as trolleys and steam tractors.
We should get him over here.
Gabriel M.A.
My Red Dot Glows For You
I never got "into" that show.
Anyway, details details.
The greeks must've stolen that Demo-something idea from the Soviets too