Just curious. What's the very worst RF you've ever had?

Yeah I'm going to have to add the Zorki to my list as well - I'm sorry to the guys that love them, but personally.... what a piece of junk.
 
Every Russian camera I have ever used because they all break. Even new, they were bad and required immediate service... oh well... I still love 'em and dream that I will actually get one to work.

XA because the lens is just so darn uninspiring for such a wonderful ground breaking camera.

Yeah, Argus C-3... I know they take photos, but they are terrible... really, no matter how much you try to love them for being so ugly...

(Favorites of mine are Leica IIIc and Retina IIa)
 
Zorki 4.....it always had problems; it oozed poor quality. Lost a few rolls of film in it before I gave it away. I disliked the handling of it, too. The worst 'good' RF I had was my M5 which I bought for its meter. I found the metering to be very unreliable in lowlight. As I shoot a lot in lowlight, it was the 'worst' M for me.
 
I had 3 'escaped-from-the-russian-tractor-factory' Leicas
The first one had an iffy shutter and so many holes in the shutter curtain it
might as well not have been there.
Second one, I got at least a roll of film through before the shutter disintegrated...pics weren't too bad.
Third one still worked more or less, but I gave it away.

Most are now being used as WW2 re-enactment paperweights

I'm sure the regular Zorki and Feds are fine, but after their conversion
to a Leica they're just plain rubbish in my opinion.

My Kiev 2a is a great little workhorse though. So I'm not saying all FSU cameras are crap.
 
Sorry to here so many disappointing stories about FSU gear, I have had general good luck. I stick to the older FSU gear late 50s to eary 70s and I have had pretty good luck.
My oldest is a Kiev 3 which works fine except a iintermittint frame spacing problem, mainly spacing too far apart, no over lapping surprise! surprise!, but I can live with that .I have a kiev 4 (1972) works great, put quite a few rolls thru it, no problem, same goes for my Zorki 4, ZOrki 6 and Fed 5b, So I really think if one is selective of where they buy there FSU gear, (Fedka, Oleg and some of the better ebay sellers) THey would have much better luck - Michael
 
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For worst, it's a contest between a Kiev 4a masquerading as a Contax II, and a Belomo Elikon which is a Belarus-made attempt at copying the Olympus XA. The Elikon is a cute little camera, appears very nice, but the lens has barrel distortion increasing wildly toward the corners. The Kiev never worked right from the start, with the shutter working ok only at 1/250 and 1/500 sec, and then of course the typical light leaks. This may have been why it was picked to get the fake Contax treatment in expectation it would sit on the shelf anyway. And so it does! The Argus C3 isn't so bad. :)
 
Contax G2... shockingly cramped viewfinder, slow to focus and no confirmation of "what" its actually focused on.
 
Probably the XA. I've had 3 - two broke, one sold before it could. Ugly bokeh from the 4 aperture blades, foul ergonomics, no manual shutter speed settings... It's a camera I want to like but it never lives up to the hype for me.

William
 
I had a split image focussing screen on a Pentacon-Six years ago, it that counts. The East German Zeiss Jena lenses were great but the camera always had spacing problems, with overlapping frames appearing at random.
 
I don't have the experience of having bought and tried so many cameras like many here. I never got around to trying either of the Argus Cx cameras I had/have. I also an not a fan of fixed lens rangefinders.

I have had several, and used them, but I am just not a fan. I probably like the Canonet QL III the most. Obviously they have their place. I am just not a big fan. I prefer being able to change lenses when I want to. Just me.

Yet, I like folders with fixed lenses and think nothing of it, especially MF. Go figure. I think with folders, I like them for their portability.
 
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Nh3 said:
Yashica Electro GT.

Sold it and the last time I ever dabbled in "vintage garbage".
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Really? I love my Yashicas. I have all the G-series and some of the others. True, I utterly destroyed my first two GSNs learning how to overhaul them, but once you get them working, they are great! It really surprised me how good they can be. GSNs are what got me into rangefinders.

I was surprised to see that some people have mentioned the Argus C3. That is about the simplest camera to work on that anyone ever made. It was designed so a highschool educated soldier can take one apart in a muddy foxhole with just three tools, fix it, and put it back together. http://www.arguscg.org/manuals/c3/army-repair/ If you can't get one of those running, the problem is probably not the camera. ON the other hand, the Autronic is the only camera I know of that has a parts list that includes a piece of string.

As for Soviet gear, I've only ventured into FSU cameras twice, so far as personal cameras go. I have a Moskva 2 and an FED 3. Both were ebay deals that needed work (expected) but they are fine now. The Moskva was a nightmare to get working again and to get adjusted. I will never get another Moskva. It is just too much work to be worth it when there are so many other good cameras out there that cost about the same thing and that need a lot less work. The one I have works perfectly, but I just don't ever want to have to do that again. The FED just took a fairly straightforward CLA though, so I guess I got lucky with that one. Anyway, I have a lot of respect for people who work on Moskvas. They must have nerves of steel. Incidentally, I have been looking for a Zorki 4K, but after reading some of the replies here, I am reconsidering.
 
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FallisPhoto said:
I'm talking a really serious POS. What's the very worst you have ever had or tried to use?

For me, it would be an Argus Autronic, hands down.
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I have two categories of "worst"; good cameras that I didn't get along with and others that I don't think were very good in any sense.
That said, my worst were:
FED2 and Canon P. These are both cameras that I wanted to like but I just couldn't get along with. Both functioned as they were supposed to but with my eyesight, I hated the VFs of both.
Worst on a "I'd rather not have a camera with me if I have to use this one":
another "vote" for the Clarus.
Rob
 
oftheherd said:
I don't have the experience of having bought and tried so many cameras like many here. I never got around to trying either of the Argus Cx cameras I had/have. I also an not a fan of fixed lens rangefinders.

I have had several, and used them, but I am just not a fan. I probably like the Canonet QL III the most. Obviously they have their place. I am just not a big fan. I prefer being able to change lenses when I want to. Just me.

Yet, I like folders with fixed lenses and think nothing of it, especially MF. Go figure. I think with folders, I like them for their portability.
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You would probably enjoy shooting with a Retina III then. Best of both worlds. It is a folder with interchangable lenses.
 
Zorki 4 - worked once then film advance jammed, managed to fix it, but cut my finger in the process, worked once more then jammed again.

Certo Dollina - didn't know much about cameras when I got this years ago. Paid over the odds for little more than broken junk.
 
Bad FSU and Good Retinas...

Take the durability issue out of the equation, remove the superlative 'worst' in the description, and consider handling during shooting as critera for determining which is better or worse instead-

With the 'unreliable' FED-5, Zorki-4K, or Kiev 4am out, the good Zorki and FED are left.
A good Zorki-1 or FED-1 is as good as a Leica II. I don't think I'm just lucky with these cameras- having several of them and seeing the best and worst among them, I can say with fair accuracy that they are as good (or as bad) as equivalent Leicas.

I recently discovered Retinas. I've been shooting with them for about 4 months now. They will score points in the quality/precision departments. But as a shooter, I think they fare worse than a FED-1. At least in my applications- candid and documentary photography etc. I can never see how bellows can ever be better than a collapsible lens barrel...having combined VF/RF isn't significantly better, especially when the Xenar focus tab is hard to locate without moving the eye from the eyepiece.
 
FED 2, but to be fair, mine was seriously worn out when I got it. Somebody in the Ukraine carried it so much that the strap lugs are almost worn through.
 
feenej said:
FED 2, but to be fair, mine was seriously worn out when I got it. Somebody in the Ukraine carried it so much that the strap lugs are almost worn through.
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Well, they say that if you get a FSU camera, to look for the worn ones. This is on the theory that the new-looking ones look that way because they don't work, and so were never used. Sounds like you took that to an extreme though.
 
I've had enough bad experiences w/ Russian "POS" cameras, but they are worth something.

I picked up a Zenit SLR after a customer at a camera store I worked at, came in and bought a new camera and asked the salesperson to "throw this !%&# piece of sh*t in the garbage!"

I'm not kidding!

I fished the camera out of the garbage and discovered that Russian cameras were good for taking apart and understanding how cameras in general were put together. The Kiev I bought suffered a similar fate, dismantled and in pieces in a box and most of it eventually in the garbage. I kept all optical bits and Contax mount.

Surprisingly fun to take apart a camera you don't want anymore.

Still thinking of taking a chance on a Moskva-4 6x9 at some point in time.

I usually find some value in a camera, even if it does end up being taken apart, but I have to say, I truly despise the Minox 35mm minature cameras with the fold down lens cover. Tried one for a 3 days and hated the way it handled...worst camera ever!
 
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