Leica LTM Painfully bad Leica fake of the day

Leica M39 screw mount bodies/lenses
landsknechte

landsknechte

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Found this listing on eBay. The seller is honest enough to admit it's a fake, but I thought that y'all might get a good laugh out of this:

leica_wermacht_heer_eagle_silver_1.jpg


leica_wermacht_heer_eagle_silver_2.jpg


leica_wermacht_heer_eagle_silver_3.jpg
 
Ah, the rare war correspondent's model. Regulations stated that these cameras could only be used whilst wearing a chromium-plated pickelhaube and monocle. Many an aspirant Goebbels was shot for dispensing with the latter :(

The "SK" stands for "Schlimm Kamera".

Ian
 
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I dont know why people waste good russian cameras, and their painting skills on such stupidity. I'd rather carry a zorki1 with Homer Simpson on it and dunkin donuts colors.
 
Hmm - the faker dropped out of his German grammar classes - isn´t it supposed to be Völkischer Beobachter?

Ah well, guess someone will buy it anyway...sigh /R
 
Indeed, Bluesman, and it should also read "Optisches Institut..." on the rewind knob.

Would not buy it, but it's not ugly looking.
 
As a matter of interest, are these painted ladies that we see on Ebay old Zorkis that have been repainted or are they still making Zorki 1s for just this purpose?

If the former, are there enough left to keep this industry going? I assume that someone buys them otherwise the practise would have dried up...
 
I've seen Zorki.1s in nice, clean working [unpainted] condition go for $100. A Zorki painted black could easily bring that. The price on these painted ladies only seems to run around $110-$150 ish (?) While I appreciate the craftsmanship, I can hardly see how it's worth their time. Maybe it's just the love of the *art*. :rolleyes:
 
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that's a really nice looking camera minus the swastika. Omit that crap, and I'd be tempted. What's the fascination with Nazi Germany?
 
40oz said:
that's a really nice looking camera minus the swastika. Omit that crap, and I'd be tempted. What's the fascination with Nazi Germany?
Click to expand...

Well, I think these cameras are very seldom sold to people with a genuine interest in photography or the faintest knowledge of militaria or history. I suspect the basic appeal lies in a posture of transgression, hence the sellers add lashings of preposterous detail, mock heraldry and the rest. This is the Nazism of comic books, "men's magazines", Hogan's Heroes and nasty little fantasies - whenever I see them I find myself thinking of the film "American Beauty".

I used to react angrilly to these cameras - the historical irony sickened me - but they now just strike me as monuments to stupidity - and a waste of skill and good parts.

Cheers, Ian
 
Jocko said:
Well, I think these cameras are very seldom sold to people with a genuine interest in photography or the faintest knowledge of militaria or history. I suspect the basic appeal lies in a posture of transgression, hence the sellers add lashings of preposterous detail, mock heraldry and the rest. This is the Nazism of comic books, "men's magazines", Hogan's Heroes and nasty little fantasies - whenever I see them I find myself thinking of the film "American Beauty".

I used to react angrilly to these cameras - the historical irony sickened me - but they now just strike me as monuments to stupidity - and a waste of skill and good parts.

Cheers, Ian
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If anything, this is aimed at the "dood a swastika!" segment of the population. They're probably not neo-Nazis or the like, just some uneducated blokes that watched a few too many WW2 movies and consider themselves serious amateur historians because of that. I myself collect German militaria, and have almost abandoned collecting items from the Third Reich indirectly because of those people. If an item has a swastika on it, regardless of the rarity or legitimacy of it, the price shoots up. There's a cottage industry now flooding the market with all sorts of counterfeit items; some convincing, and some comically bad. Anyone who is accustomed to looking at items from the 1930's-1940's should be able to tell the engraving isn't period, even if they know nothing about Leicas.
 
Seems very well done. I wish they would make some of this quality without all the nazi symbolism. A while ago I saw some that even had an M-style door on the back of the camera. I don't see any of these anymore. I really would be interested in a decent rebuild of a Zorki, without all the references to Leica or nazism.
 
Bluesman said:
Hmm - the faker dropped out of his German grammar classes - isn´t it supposed to be Völkischer Beobachter?

Ah well, guess someone will buy it anyway...sigh /R
Click to expand...
The Soviet Union always suffered from severe shortages. They were probably out of umlauts at the time the camera was painted.:rolleyes:
Kurt M.
 
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