What NOT to do with a FED!!

I really love to look on those ebay wonders ! I think we should have here some topic like "The best of Ebay" with such wonders ... the best of all are those nazi-tunned ones 😉

This one is perfect 🙂 "Alles fur Deutschland" copied from war time SS-Dagger ... 😉
 
I love these kitschy fakes. There are a number of websites I know of that show a few, mostly to show the difference between real Leicas and fakes. But why not make a gallery of the best specimens? A Flickr group would work as well.

Stephen Gandy has a number of his website, but those are pretty old. I have seen a few 'new' outrageous ones the last few years. I believe Stephen somewhere states that he is waiting for an 'Adolf loves Eva' version. That would be the ultimate in 'good' bad taste IMHO 😀 After al, she WAS a photographer.

Btw, I want to make it absolutely clear that I have NO sympathy whatsoever for the Nazi regime, I just like old cameras.

I would also include the fakes that pose as rare copies, like Reid & Sigrists and Chinese versions.

If I were a collector I'd probably collect them. You can buy a boatload of them for the price of one rare Leica after all 😀
 
I love these Leica knockoffs. Now, this one is pretty ugly, but I have a couple of fakes that are actually pretty well done. Since I bought them for $50 or $60, I can't understand how anyone makes anything off of them. Both I have clearly took quite a bit of work to change the markings.

Now, I don't support claiming a fake is the real thing, but as long as it's upfront, what the heck. The old FED's aren't bad cameras in their own right.
 
On second thoughts maybe I should have deleted the NOT in the title of this thread, considering the bids he/she is getting. There seems to be a pretty good living to be made butchering FEDs, as long as you do it really, really badly. I've seen Zorki-S "Leica" fakes that looked more genuine than this!

Nobody bids this much for a Leica fake, so are they shills or do they actually think it is a real one?
 
The gallery of Fed's and Zorkis from ebay would be a lot smaller and manageable if it only showed ones in good condition that worked and had a reasonable price tag on them. Seems to this old fool that every camera on ebay is rare, unique and vintage. Even ones that reached the 10, 11 or 12 million production figures...

Regards, David
 
Grytpype said:
On second thoughts maybe I should have deleted the NOT in the title of this thread, considering the bids he/she is getting. There seems to be a pretty good living to be made butchering FEDs, as long as you do it really, really badly. I've seen Zorki-S "Leica" fakes that looked more genuine than this!

Nobody bids this much for a Leica fake, so are they shills or do they actually think it is a real one?
Click to expand...

These, shall we call them Leica paraphrases, are avidly collected the more improbable the better. Different strokes for different folks but a great deal of craftsmanship goes into them.

Criticism should be reserved for the brilliant fakes made in Ukraine, Poland etc.; these you wont detect so easily and the prices are in four and five figures not three. This stuff has made collecting Leica rarities particularly treacherous. The same craft skills you see on the improbable creations can be applied to early Feds to produce something more sinister and far less tongue in cheek.
 
A good Fed, that became a bad Leica in my opninion. Most of these camera's are put together from various parts of Fed and Zorki camera's. Parts are filed down to re-engrave and polish them, making the platework thinner and weaker. No better look, no better camera.
 
outfitter said:
These, shall we call them Leica paraphrases, are avidly collected the more improbable the better. Different strokes for different folks but a great deal of craftsmanship goes into them.
Click to expand...

Maybe there is a place for the more realistic fakes, provided they are based on the more common varieties, and not rarer/pre-war models - and provided, of course, that they are not sold as genuine to gullible buyers.

I don't think this particular example shows much sign of "craftsmanship" though! If the vandal that created it was too hard-up to get it plated, I think the least they could have done was to paint the poor thing black!

Perhaps, as you suggest, its attraction is the fact that it is so gross and over-the-top.
 
But isn't he selling it as a real Leica? Found it in the attic of a friends father.....just where I found Mussolinis's underwear.
 
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