Separating the FSU Hard Core from the Possers

I know this is an old topic

I know this is an old topic

I found this old topic and I though how cool it would be to have a Russian Camera T-shirt and this is what I came up with after messing with some ideas.
final.png

I want the text to say something like "True camera" or "Real camera" in Russian so I just guessed and used the google translator so it is probably really off.

(Sorry about the lubitel not being a rangefinder but it is my first russian camera and it makes me love it.)
 
anselwannab said:
What conotation or baggage does "Soviet" carry in Russia now?
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Over here for example if you buy things on a flea market, Soviet goods usually costs more than post-Soviet goods, even if they're from the same factory, and most of the time they're also more expensive than newer Chinese imports, though a lot cheaper than Japanese or European imports.

In historical perspective for many people here especially from the generation over thirty Soviet times were the glory days when there was work for everyone so that one job was enough and your work was respected, where you could go on holiday and travel once a year without problems, when there was friendship between peoples and when you were somebody on the international arena. Gorbachev is seen largely as the man who destroyed it all.

anselwannab said:
Are FSU cameras relativly expensive in the FSU? I would think not?
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Here they are rather cheap - examples of used cameras I've seen: Kiev 88 (complete setup with lenses, two backs and the carrying case) - $150, Zorki-5 and Zorki-6, each with I-50 lens - $15 each; Drug, with J-8 lens, like new - $60; FED-5 with I-61 lens - $20; FED-2, with I-26 lens - $5; Kiev-60 setup new in box in a shop with standard prices - $65.

You can usually look at them and play around with them before buying, but you won't get any kind of warranty, unless the camera breaks the day after you've bought it.

Philipp
 
Mark,
With so many good ideas, I suggest using the ones you like and print some shirts.
I would be willing and am sure I would choose several to buy😎 . I think the sales
would be better than expected. Be sure to include something w/Zorki reference.🙄




Zorki 5b
Nikon FM2
Nikon FM3a
 
How about a red T-shirt that just says KNEB across the chest in block lettering?

Or FED-Zorki across the shoulders on the back, a la the name on a jersey?

I'd like a white t-shirt that has the KMZ trapezoid-with-arrow logo on the sleeve or left breast in black with a red arrow.

Just for fun, a "gas station attendant" shirt with FED, Zorki, and Industar patches 🙂

For those with rather beat-up user models, something like, "You should see the other camera," with Zavod Arsenal and logo below and to the right, as if a credit for the quote.

I don't know about the legality of appropriating trademarks, but one might be able to make the argument that the shirts are "artistic statements," which falls under fair-use, rather than a commercial venture. Of course, one might require a fast-talking lawyer either way 😀
 
"Comrades in Cameras" would get my vote with close second"this tank takes better pictures than your mobile phone will ever"
That reminds me when Jobo made an advert for their devolper tanks in Australia:
"We Germans always built the better tanks"
 
rxmd said:
Here they are rather cheap - examples of used cameras I've seen: Kiev 88 (complete setup with lenses, two backs and the carrying case) - $150, Zorki-5 and Zorki-6, each with I-50 lens - $15 each; Drug, with J-8 lens, like new - $60; FED-5 with I-61 lens - $20; FED-2, with I-26 lens - $5; Kiev-60 setup new in box in a shop with standard prices - $65.

You can usually look at them and play around with them before buying, but you won't get any kind of warranty, unless the camera breaks the day after you've bought it.

Philipp
Click to expand...


Any thoughts on becoming a supplier??? Wink, wink... nudge, nudge😀
 
TVphotog said:
rxmd said:
Here they are rather cheap - examples of used cameras I've seen: Kiev 88 (complete setup with lenses, two backs and the carrying case) - $150, Zorki-5 and Zorki-6, each with I-50 lens - $15 each; Drug, with J-8 lens, like new - $60; FED-5 with I-61 lens - $20; FED-2, with I-26 lens - $5; Kiev-60 setup new in box in a shop with standard prices - $65.

You can usually look at them and play around with them before buying, but you won't get any kind of warranty, unless the camera breaks the day after you've bought it.
Click to expand...
Any thoughts on becoming a supplier??? Wink, wink... nudge, nudge😀
Click to expand...
Not really.

Firstly, I've got one main supplier here myself who is a good friend and makes part of his living standing on flea markets and selling cameras that to a large part come from his own collection; I talked to him already about why he doesn't sell things internationally, and he has good reasons for not doing so, so buying from him myself with the intention of resale overseas would feel a bit like cheating. He does have a nice collection, but also a rather shrewd approach to things (for example he showed me a TSVVS and said that this was his original that he wasn't selling, and that he had another one which was a fake and which he would sell to a Japanese tourist); I'm not sure if that's the best basis to start reselling cameras 🙂

Secondly, many cameras you see here are in rather bad shape, and finding good ones requires quite a bit of running around and phoning and knowing people, which doesn't really appear in the prices mentioned above - if you buy a Zorki for $50 from a seller on eBay, you can be moderately sure that he paid a maximum of $20 for it, but also that for every Zorki he sells he has to look at at least three others that have all sorts of problems. My prices above are the equivalent of the $20 side of the equation. I simply don't have the time and the connections to take orders and to go on systematically looking for things, and I don't have a repairman here because the last good one died some time ago from a stroke. (That's incidentally also a reason why I wouldn't buy camera equipment from Uzbek eBay sellers anymore at present.)

Thirdly, I would feel bad about not being able to give a warranty; reselling would really be feasible only to people who could fix a camera themselves. I've read too many disappointed posts about cameras never arriving or coming in dead on arrival from FSU sellers, I don't have much in the way of a desire to become one of these sellers myself.

And fourthly, Uzbekistan has export duties on a number of goods and it is a pain to convince the girls at the post office that no, you're not selling things, you're simply giving gifts to a friend. 🙂

Philipp
 
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