strange Leningrad camera

[santino]

Hi!

I've got a russian camera book from 1954 and there are different cameras listed (Zorkis, Kievs and so on) and there is that Leningrad camera! it isn't marked as prototype, just a normal camera.

Specifications:

shutter speeds 1/1 to 1/500 (brass made shutter)
super bright finder, framelines for 28mm, 35mm, 50mm and 80mm.
lenses: prime lens Jupiter 3 50mm 1:1,5, Orion 28mm 1:6, Uran 35mm 1:2,5, Industar 80mm 1:2,8
note: no spring motor!

does anybody have any info?

 

[Leica-Virgin]

This sounds like the motorised (clockwork) version that was perceived as the professional 35mm rangefinder of its time.
have a look at : http://corsopolaris.net/leningrad/leningrad.html which gives a bit more info on this model

 

[Leica-Virgin]

Sorry missed your note re "no spring motor"
I will have a look at Princelle tonight and get back to you.
Cheers Steve

 

[Jocko]

Hallo! I assume the book is A.A. Syrov's Put' fotoapparat? The camera he illustrates was an ancestor of the better known Leningrad RF and not actually put into production. It may not even have been made in the form shown in his drawing, which could simply depict one of several prototypical designs.

Soviet sources often fail to distinguish between designs, prototypes, rejects and production models of many industrial goods. Sometimes this was intentional disinformation - notably with regard to military aircraft. Sometimes, one assumes, it was domestic propaganda, intended to suggest that a greater range of goods were available than was really so. Often items were simply made to impress foreign observers; the Kometa camera is an obvious example. In all cases the priority was to assert Soviet capabilities - not Soviet reality.

This often means that western sources prior to 1992 are very unreliable. For example, books on cars routinely claimed that the GAZ 18 invalid carriage was widely supplied to disabled war vets. In fact only 2 were made - enough for the propaganda pictures.

 

[santino]

No, it's just a photography guide about cameras, how to take pictures/develop and so on. it's in russian and there's no author, seems to be just a normal guide.

 

[Jocko]

No, it's just a photography guide about cameras, how to take pictures/develop and so on. it's in russian and there's no author, seems to be just a normal guide.

I think you'll find it's Syrov's book, which was published in 1954 and contains the very drawing you reproduce. Princelle notes that this camera was never made, although a prototype camera "with a slightly different design" was presumably the basis for the Leningrad.

 

[santino]

ahh I see, thanks a lot 🙂

 

[santino]

still one question, what about those two lenses named Uran and Industar? did they ever produce them or is it also just a myth?

 

[Leica-Virgin]

Princelle's Guide to Russian and Soviet Cameras has two photographs of predecessors of the Leningrad and they were indeed put into production although as no numbers are stated, I suspect only in small quantities.
The first camera is listed simply as the GOI and dates 1948-49
It had a wide based coupled r/f like the Contax and an interchangeable GOI Industar 50mm f2.5 in a collapsible mount.
It also had the Contax style focusing wheel but at the bottom left of the lens mount.
It had a Leicavit style shutter cocking trigger and a metal guillotine style shutter curtain . The shutter speed setting wheel is located in the hump on the top plate.
The pressure plate was made so that it retracted during film advance.

The second version was called GOI Leningrad (also 1948-49) with identical top plate but Leningrad engraved on the front.
Much the same as the GOI except the viewfinder covered 50, 80 and 135 framelines and the lens was a two claw bayonet GOI Jupiter 50mm f1.5

Like you I have never seen or heard mention of this camera until your post 🙄 .
I shall be looking at Ebay Leningrad listings more closely in future.
Cheers Steve

 

[Jocko]

still one question, what about those two lenses named Uran and Industar? did they ever produce them or is it also just a myth?

Leica-virgin (my warm congratulations - that name deserves a prize! 😀 ) must have the second edition of Princelle, so doubtless has better information... But - as far as I can see from the first edition, the Uran is otherwise unknown, as is an 80mm Industar.

It's odd - this reminds me a bit of some British books from the early-mid 40s. These assume that Leica and Contax are on their way out and the Kodak Ektra system will dominate serious photography. This obviously never happened; the Ektra was brilliant but deeply flawed, yet now it's strange to read these books - almost like something from a parallel photographic universe! I wonder if this Leningrad was a similar case; a design that once seemed likely to make it, but never did.

All the best, Ian