My experience with FSU/DDR cameras

[tunalegs]

I have come to the conclusion that FSU camera gear and to a lesser extent the East German made stuff (before the unification) is all in a class of its own.

I would not rely on them if I made my living taking photographs but it is an interesting sideline for a hobbyist, if one is inclined not being overly bothered if the camera or lens self destructs or produces mediocre results.

It reminds me of the guys that keep 1960s and 1970s MG and/or Triumph sports cars in the shed behind the garage as a hobby and spend every second summer's weekend tinkering with them and maybe going for a ride in them, but not for too long or too far.

As somebody who's owned a few vintage cars, I'm not sure that's a fair comparison to make.

Exaktas impress me. Every one that I've got has worked fine after just simple cleaning and lubrication. No adjustments needed. Just some cleaning and oil and the shutter speeds were spot on again. No other vintage SLR I've touched has needed that little attention. But then again, these cameras are sort of in a league of their own among their eastern comrades. So far every one I've kept is still working fine after such little attention, and I suppose should be for many more years.

Prakticas on the other hand...

 

[xayraa33]

As somebody who's owned a few vintage cars, I'm not sure that's a fair comparison to make.

Exaktas impress me. Every one that I've got has worked fine after just simple cleaning and lubrication. No adjustments needed. Just some cleaning and oil and the shutter speeds were spot on again. No other vintage SLR I've touched has needed that little attention. But then again, these cameras are sort of in a league of their own among their eastern comrades. So far every one I've kept is still working fine after such little attention, and I suppose should be for many more years.

Prakticas on the other hand...

I never seem to think that 60s and 70s budget British sports cars as vintage, but that is just my age related, (and maybe based on a little or a lot of misinformation) jaded prejudice.


As far as Exaktas versus Prakticas go, my real life experience is the opposite of yours, I had a Praktica as my first good camera (like the OP) and it never let me down and i shot thousands of exposures through it but i sold it to get the new fangled Olympus OM 1 and I don't know in retrospect that was a good thing, maybe it was.

I did get an Exakta a few years ago and it was a late model in very good condition and with a fine Zeiss lens but it gave me nothing but problems in a very short time, both body and lens.

This Christmas I been gifted an other Praktica, and it is like reuniting with a long lost friend.

 

[David Hughes]

I have come to the conclusion that FSU camera gear and to a lesser extent the East German made stuff (before the unification) is all in a class of its own.

I would not rely on them if I made my living taking photographs but it is an interesting sideline for a hobbyist, if one is inclined not being overly bothered if the camera or lens self destructs or produces mediocre results...

OK, but have you actually owned and used any? Saying that you've "come to the conclusion" is what worries me.

Regards, David

 

[xayraa33]

OK, but have you actually owned and used any? Saying that you've "come to the conclusion" is what worries me.

Regards, David

David, I come or came to that conclusion from owning and using FSU camera gear and some East German made SLRS and lenses.... I still have most of them in my possession and they do get used,... less often now unfortunately, due to my arthritic medical condition that has put a damper on my activities 🙁.

 

[tunalegs]

I did get an Exakta a few years ago and it was a late model in very good condition and with a fine Zeiss lens but it gave me nothing but problems in a very short time, both body and lens.

Did you have it serviced? If not, then your experience isn't really the opposite of mine.

Take a 40 year old camera with dried up lubricants, 40 years of dust and film chips stuck in it, and it's not going to work accurately, reliably, regardless of who made it. What is impressive about the Exaktas in my experience is that with just a minimum of attention it will come back to life and work very well, without any fiddling or adjusting, which is something that hasn't been my experience with any other SLRs including Pentax and such.

I used to be fan of Praktica, until I tried to repair a few, and now I'm definitely not a fan anymore.

 

[xayraa33]

Did you have it serviced? If not, then your experience isn't really the opposite of mine.

Take a 40 year old camera with dried up lubricants, 40 years of dust and film chips stuck in it, and it's not going to work accurately, reliably, regardless of who made it. What is impressive about the Exaktas in my experience is that with just a minimum of attention it will come back to life and work very well, without any fiddling or adjusting, which is something that hasn't been my experience with any other SLRs including Pentax and such.

I used to be fan of Praktica, until I tried to repair a few, and now I'm definitely not a fan anymore.

It was supposedly serviced before I bought it from a seller in the Czech republic and it was in very good shape, it certainly looked like a camera that had a very easy life.

 

[p.giannakis]

Did you have it serviced?

I have to say that i did not send any of my FSU/DDR cameras to be serviced.

But...

None of my 3 Olympus OM-1 was serviced. Also my Olympus OM-2 is also not serviced.
The same goes for the :

3 Pentax Spotmatics that I acquired through the years. Or for the 2 K1000's. Also I never had my Yashica's FX2, FR and MG-1 ever serviced. A Minolta SRT101, an SR-1 and a Himatic-7 was never serviced. Konica Auto-s was not serviced either and worked fine while i had it.
A Miranda sensorex had a dead lightmeter but worked well. A Canon Datematic was also working perfectly well without any service So did my Ricoh 500G.
My zeiss Ikoflex was also spot on without any service (had a stiff focusing dial but that was all) and my signal Nettar although in bad cosmetic condition was working well.
My Voigltlander Brillant was un-buried from a basement and worked perfectly well.

How many of these camera have they been serviced before falling to my hands? Impossible to say but i doubt that all of them had (more likely none but i cannot prove it...).

 

[David Hughes]

David, I come or came to that conclusion from owning and using FSU camera gear and some East German made SLRS and lenses.... I still have most of them in my possession and they do get used,... less often now unfortunately, due to my arthritic medical condition that has put a damper on my activities 🙁.

Hi,

Sorry to hear about the arthritic condition, it puts rather a damper on a lot of things and cameras without lever winds add to it.

Regards, David

 

[tunalegs]

I have to say that i did not send any of my FSU/DDR cameras to be serviced.

But...

None of my 3 Olympus OM-1 was serviced. Also my Olympus OM-2 is also not serviced.
The same goes for the :

3 Pentax Spotmatics that I acquired through the years. Or for the 2 K1000's. Also I never had my Yashica's FX2, FR and MG-1 ever serviced. A Minolta SRT101, an SR-1 and a Himatic-7 was never serviced. Konica Auto-s was not serviced either and worked fine while i had it.
A Miranda sensorex had a dead lightmeter but worked well. A Canon Datematic was also working perfectly well without any service So did my Ricoh 500G.
My zeiss Ikoflex was also spot on without any service (had a stiff focusing dial but that was all) and my signal Nettar although in bad cosmetic condition was working well.
My Voigltlander Brillant was un-buried from a basement and worked perfectly well.

How many of these camera have they been serviced before falling to my hands? Impossible to say but i doubt that all of them had (more likely none but i cannot prove it...).

I wonder how many of the same makes have been thrown in the trash because they stopped working though?

There's really no way to know if a camera has been serviced in the past, unless you open it up or the shop left a sticker inside the camera. But I have seen some really cheap cameras with service stickers in them, so I feel like it was much more common in the past for people to send cameras in for repair and maintenance than it is today.

I could also counter that I've had two Canon AE-1s die on me, probably more than half the Miranda lenses I've had suffered from stuck apertures, almost every Ricoh and Petri needed the lens helical regreased, and so on. Beyond that once you get into the electronic age, a lot of these cameras are unserviceable without factory tools, when they're dead they're dead.

Exaktas on the other hand:

Exakta guts by Berang Berang, on Flickr

Are very easy to open up, clean, and lube. And then you're probably good for another decade or two.

 

[David Hughes]

I have to say that i did not send any of my FSU/DDR cameras to be serviced.

But...

None of my 3 Olympus OM-1 was serviced. Also my Olympus OM-2 is also not serviced.
The same goes for the :

3 Pentax Spotmatics that I acquired through the years. Or for the 2 K1000's. Also I never had my Yashica's FX2, FR and MG-1 ever serviced. A Minolta SRT101, an SR-1 and a Himatic-7 was never serviced. Konica Auto-s was not serviced either and worked fine while i had it.
A Miranda sensorex had a dead lightmeter but worked well. A Canon Datematic was also working perfectly well without any service So did my Ricoh 500G.
My zeiss Ikoflex was also spot on without any service (had a stiff focusing dial but that was all) and my signal Nettar although in bad cosmetic condition was working well.
My Voigltlander Brillant was un-buried from a basement and worked perfectly well.

How many of these camera have they been serviced before falling to my hands? Impossible to say but i doubt that all of them had (more likely none but i cannot prove it...).

Hi,

Yes, I can see your point but dare I point out that the Cold War meant the USSR was blocked from modern methods and materials for many years and also had to recover from the second world war on it's own? As, to a lesser extent, we did in the UK. Look at any 50's photo magazine to see the lack of equipment available. Leicas, f'instance, only being freely available from the mid 50's.

After WW2 Japan and W Germany were seen as a business opportunity by some of the richer allies and benefited from it.

I doubt if our American friends will understand this as their country wasn't left devastated as the UK and a lot of Europe were. We had to cope with being bombed right up until almost the end of the war; I'm thinking of V1's and V2's. If I see or hear one or an air raid siren on TV my hair still stands on end...

Regards, David

 

[Dralowid]

Even the humble but curious Pentina comes apart at the drop of hat.

IMG_2913 by dralowid, on Flickr

Curiously this is camera is one of the few that is truly left handed (which could be the start of another thread!).

 

[radi(c)al_cam]

Even the humble but curious Pentina comes apart at the drop of hat.

[…]

Curiously this is camera is one of the few that is truly left handed (which could be the start of another thread!).

I agree, the PENTINA cameras are design-wise very pleasing to the eye, quite like their VF/RF cousins, the WERRA.
Since I'm an ambidextrous, but two of my children are predominantly right-handed: would you recommend to a right-handed person to use a PENTINA upside-down?

 

[bobby_novatron]

Interesting thread -- I'm glad to see that some (most?) photography enthusiasts have at least TRIED to use an FSU camera. I personally find it fascinating to see how the FSU / COMECON countries tried to offer a diverse product range to their consumers. The exhaustive "Princelle" book is a good compendium of photo gear from the USSR.

Of all the, ahem, FSU "collectibles" I've bought, currently only 4 work properly.

1. a humble SMENA 8 (seriously, what can possibly go wrong with a plastic box?)
2. my Kiev 2a (from 1957, works like brand-new. Why? I have no idea.)
3. my Moskva-5 (again, from late 1950's)
4. my ARAX modified Kiev 88 (great camera BTW)

I absolutely love my Zorki-4, but unfortunately it recently developed problems of its own. When I have some free time I'll have to take a closer look at it.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

And, then there's the Praktina. Great concept, flawed execution. First camera. I now have a good operating example again.

FWIW, eBay seller cupog in Slovenia repairs these cameras and has some listed for sale. He put my Praktina back into shape.

 

[rinzlerb]

I have no great love of the cameras, but I appreciate their quirky charms and low prices--makes me more inclined to take risks. I always feel like I've really accomplished something when I get a good picture out of them. I've had good luck with a Zorki 4. The lenses are having a new and happy life on my digital cameras. The Jupiter 9 is my favorite portrait lens for special magic. Here's my current favorite shot with a NEX-7.

 

[bobby_novatron]

Great portrait! Nicely done!

 

[RichC]

From my experience of the few Soviet cameras I've bought, their designs are badly implemented by the factories and they're shoddily built with no quality control. After trying a few basic models, I had high hopes for a rather expensive Iskra - but (like the others) it was an ergonomic nightmare with awkward controls and knurling on the knobs so sharp it made my fingers bleed, not to mention wonky components that were clearly put in like that at the factory!

They're the camera equivalents of tractors! I'm never buying another!

That said, my 6x9 camera is actually a Moskva 4. This too was horrible when I got it - but as a hobbyist engineer, I rebuilt it with a lot of re-engineered and modified parts. This transformed the camera, and it's a joy to use now...

 

[tunalegs]

From my experience of the few Soviet cameras I've bought, their designs are badly implemented by the factories and they're shoddily built with no quality control. After trying a few basic models, I had high hopes for a rather expensive Iskra - but (like the others) it was an ergonomic nightmare with awkward controls and knurling on the knobs so sharp it made my fingers bleed, not to mention wonky components that were clearly put in like that at the factory!

This could be said about probably 90% of all cameras built in the 1950s though. Most German cameras of the era are ergonomic disasters, and quality of anything below the top tier was generally indifferent as well. I have a Tower Reflex (Photina) that has a wonderful lens and produces brilliant results, but is a pain to use because the relative locations of the shutter cocking lever, release, and aperture setting arm make it impossible to hold without either knocking the f/stop out of adjustment, or hanging up the shutter when the cocking lever hits one of your fingers while releasing the shutter. Further, the whole thing is made of castings - including the sliding latches for the back, which is a questionable construction. And then we could look at what the Americans were making, Argus, Clarus, Perfex, Ciro... need I write more?

Relatively speaking, the Feds and Zorkis and Kievs were rather refined for their time.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

This one seems to be built like a tank. Heavy. Only a few shutter speeds. From the dial, appears that 1/30th is the only sync speed. It works, although I've never tried the meter. I'd say this one was built to last, rather than built to be the sexiest camera of it's time.

Has had no attention. Pedigree unknown. Yard sale pickup.

I really should give it a good cleaning.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

From my experience of the few Soviet cameras I've bought, their designs are badly implemented by the factories and they're shoddily built with no quality control. After trying a few basic models, I had high hopes for a rather expensive Iskra - but (like the others) it was an ergonomic nightmare with awkward controls and knurling on the knobs so sharp it made my fingers bleed, not to mention wonky components that were clearly put in like that at the factory!

They're the camera equivalents of tractors! I'm never buying another!

That said, my 6x9 camera is actually a Moskva 4. This too was horrible when I got it - but as a hobbyist engineer, I rebuilt it with a lot of re-engineered and modified parts. This transformed the camera, and it's a joy to use now...

Interesting, among us, FSU, Moskva-4 is as good as it is. Good knock-off of Zeiss. This is why it is most popular one. I even used Zeiss DIY instructions to CLA Moskva cameras, because it has better methods suggested.

"Tractor" is how I call Zorki-6.

Here is the drill of FSU camera industry from engineer perspective.
First cameras like Zorki and Kiev were exact copies. Some were using not soviet made equipment. Once they started to migrate from original design and non-soiviet made equipment went broke, the quality of cameras has declined.
ISKRA was disaster from very begging and didn't lasted as long as Lubitel, for example.

But were are some exclusions. Smena cameras, Orion, Russar lenses.