done with FSU RF's?

[mh2000]

FSU rangefinders even got into the USA somehow... when I was a small kid my dad and I went to a camera shop since my dad wanted to replace his old Argus C3 and they had a FSU something rangefinder for an unbelievable price... during the demo, something broke and the salesman said that most needed some service new, but after they fixed them they were "pretty good." Scared my dad off...

I've owned more than a dozen beautiful FSU rangefinders and I've not gotten one to work reliably for more than a few rolls of film yet... (well, my FED 5b probably still works, but yuck! I only bought that for the lens).

I think if you buy a dozen German or Japanese cameras of the same vintage that are described as "working", even from the iffiest ebay sellers, that at least half will actually work.

 

[Valkir1987]

In the Netherlands, like the UK, many people had a Zenit or Praktica as their first reflex camera. Both very reliable camera's in their design in my opinion. Most owners bought a Japanese camera, after collecting lenses for their Zenit or Praktica.

East German camera's (and other products) had different quality marks stamped on the body. Q1 was the highest, then came 1, then 2 and then 3. Some accesories for the B series Praktica where manufactured in Japan under licence, like the Winder for example.

I am sure that this is right. The example of Zenit SLRs bears this out. They were always cheaper than the Practicas MTL3, which in turn were cheaper than the cheapest Japanese SLR. Having used all three, I would say that the prices relected their 'intrinsic values'. When Practica produced the B range with a competitive specification they were able to sell them at similar prices to cheaper Japanese cameras, despite any prejudice against Soviet bloc products.