LOL Possibly the *worst* leica copy i've ever seen!!

That is pathetic. If the Russian sellers spent as much repairing Kiev's, Fed's, and Zorki's into 1st rate operating condition as they do in engraving and painting them, they would do much better.
 
I often wish they would do up the existing zorkis and feds to that standard by which i mean the black finish and the white inlay in the dials and *not* the nazi symbols!

It makes me uncomfortable to think there is a market out there for these faux-nazi cameras. They are so gaudy that they probably would have made Goebbles himself blush!

Maybe we could all email our dear russian sellers and tell them to service up the non-nazi adorned and proud examples of soviet achievement to the same standard, and that I for one would pay a lot more for them!
 
I agree with garythegit and Brian. The "Comando Leica" appears to have been well done, but I would be ashamed & afraid to take it out in public.

Nicely rebuilt Feds or Zorkis, in black (or custom colours) would probably sell well in Canada and the US. I'm one of those individuals who would prefer to own a "genuine Fed" instead of a fake Leica. But then that's just me.

Best regards to all,

Bill K.
 
You know, I absolutely agree on the Nazi symbol stuff.

I've been into gun collecting for a long time - and you can always find a table at any gun show that sells 'Nazi Memorabilia'. Helmets, flags, daggers, ammo cans, and so on.

Why anyone would want this stuff is beyond me. What it represents - ugh!

I have heard the 'must preserve the past so that we don't repeat it' argument, and I've heard the 'collecting historic artifacts is neutral to the ideology' argument - both leave me cold. Should Nazi history be preserved? I guess I can see the point if it is a museum, but why would someone want that stuff in their home?

And then you've got your fake Nazi stuff. At first, it was sold as authentic - to make people think it was real. Then everybody kind of figured it out and even the newbies stopped being fooled - now there is a new market for the stuff as 'copies' of Nazi memorabilia. Now I understand it even less!

I just don't get it, I guess.

Best Regards,

Bill Mattocks
 
Two cases in point: 1) I'm not in the Hasselblad League, but at least one model is supposed to be available in 4 or 5 different colors. 2)"Special Edition" Leicas are almost a hallowed tradition. Why should Feds, Zorkis, or Kievs be different? That gives them an excuse to charge a premium price, as in "Luftwaffe" editions of W.W. II Leicas. Somehow that makes it DIFFERENT than any old run-of-the-mill Leica. Will it take better pictures??
 
My only thought is "What a complete waste of talent". Whoever did the work appears to be very good and if they are half as good at repairing/overhauling the cameras they "boost", they'd have more business than they could handle.

A real shame.

Walker
 
I agree with doubs42, these guys have amazing skills. Hopefully one of them will read this forum and start producing some cool cameras like those on the fzorkis site. I'd love a nicely-done black Zorki 4 or a Fed 2.
 
Its the way things are today, a dumbed down public will buy anything!! In Prague for instance there is an area with dozens of shops selling tarted up cheap watches made to look like military FSU items, very poor quality Russian babushka dolls, and a lot of other horrible crap, it completely spoils the area, and the stuff has nothing to do with Prague , Czech history , culture or craft. I saw some of these abomitation cameras there!! Most looked as though they had been sprayed with cheap car paint in some scruffy back shop. Yet people were buying them, and I'm very sorry to say mostly by Japanese and US tourists. :bang:
 
I hear tell these things go over very well with American tourists in Moscow and the pictures you see suggest that this tarting up is extremely well done technically. So, if the market is there, who are we to deny our Russian friends from taking advantage of it? I think the keyword here is capitalism, isn't it?

Having said that. I wish they would more sensibly devote their time to tarting up their own as their own. The FEDs 1 and 2 were finished in variations that reflected the social and political times in which they were made. By comparison with the junk Luftwaffe Leicas, it would be dead easy to fake a late FED-1 into an early NKVD engraved model finished nicely in black with white engraving. Or, holy cow! a pre-series FED-2 with flash synch and all that cyrillic engraving in red!!! Who cares about the RF window? The round one is far more elegant anyway....
 
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