Is it Iskra? Is it Welta? Is it.....

chippy said:
some of the 'old' tops were covered in leather/leatherette, the Welta Solida for example, but this camera has been done somewhat sloppy. on the front you can see the join where they changed direction of the grain...

it does look like sort of past decade enthusiasts, desperate attempt at making 'the camera' from what he (part/cameras) could manage in his part of the globe...i wonder if it ever worked!?

we need to look to the old russian cameras for the film counters parts ect i feel
Click to expand...

To me, it looks like what someone would get if he were a mediocre repairman with a lot of spare parts in his bins and decided to see, just out of curiosity, if he could cobble together a working camera out of all his disparate crap. God alone knows if it ever worked, but I doubt it. Then it occurred to him: "Hey, there are a lot of idiots out there -- I bet, if I call it rare, I can sell it on ebay!" and thus we find ourselves talking about it in RFF.
 
The "creator" sure was enthusiastic. But i could understand his situation. For many of the "normal" people in the former Soviet block it could be almost impossible to get quality gear.
Observed the same situation here in The Netherlands during the forties. First a war, then an occupation and after that years of chronic shortage of materials. You can see the most strange "homemade" contraptions described in the photomagazines from that time.
 
Maybe we're thinking about this the wrong way. Maybe we should be thinking of it as an ugly impressionistic sculpture of a camera instead of as the real thing. So what's the artist saying, other than "I wonder if I can actually sell this crap?"
 
The most modern part identified until now is the body of the Iskra. They were produced between 1960 and 1963. The creator must have started his work later.

The filmcounter looks older to me, its general layout calls for the 1940's 0r 1950's. The faceplate being white is also a point to watch. How many medium format cameras where there with such a filmcounter ? It is surely not from the Iskra. Could it have been "borrowed" from a 35mm (or 127 size) camera with a homemade faceplate ?

Just waded through this webpage but no luck :
http://www.sovietcams.com/index.php?1946411876
 
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hanskerensky said:
The "creator" sure was enthusiastic. But i could understand his situation. For many of the "normal" people in the former Soviet block it could be almost impossible to get quality gear.
Observed the same situation here in The Netherlands during the forties. First a war, then an occupation and after that years of chronic shortage of materials. You can see the most strange "homemade" contraptions described in the photomagazines from that time.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same. Could have been tinkered in a labor camp in Siberia. The hobby of a goat keeper in the High Tartra. And if it delivered acceptable pictures the man has to be praised for it. It is no prototype. And it is an ugly thing on Ebay.

Reminds me of a story about a man in a prison who was able to develop photos with "man made" chemicals.


Ernst Dinkla
 
chippy said:
some of the 'old' tops were covered in leather/leatherette, the Welta Solida for example, but this camera has been done somewhat sloppy. on the front you can see the join where they changed direction of the grain...
Click to expand...

Yeah. No way was that done in a Welta factory.
 
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