THIS Fake is Better Than Most!

[egpj]

What about the screws around the base of the top-plateconnecting it to the body. That is the first thing that jumped out at me. I know that IIf does not have those.

 

[doubs43]

What about the screws around the base of the top-plateconnecting it to the body. That is the first thing that jumped out at me. I know that IIf does not have those.

Glenn, the Russian copy here is based on the Leica Model II which doesn't have the die-cast body of the IIF. The interesting thing about the Leica II is that in spite of not having slow shutter speeds, the top dial will still have "1-20" on it. Many Model II Leicas were later converted to the Model III.

Walker

 

[ZorkiKat]

Once I bought one such fake. Very difficult to load film. Pictures coming out of there are worse than expected. Strangely there is a yesteryear glow in them.

This could be expected of such fakes. They are mostly made from cosmetically (and even mechanically) bad cameras which wouldn't otherwise sell 'as is'. Its possible that one fake could have been made from several cameras. As such the parts won't fit right, and the working registers would be off. The spaces and channels would be off as well, making film loading difficult, among other things.

The flange to focal distance is very critical. It takes just a bit of a fraction of a milimeter to make correct focus impossible. Often, the shimming found under the lens mount is not replaced in these fakes. The RF, which should be adjusted for each camera individually, is often just there, without proper calibration.

If a camera has been assembled from several donor parts, the adjustmenst would be off. It is possible to recalibrate the camera so that it could shoot right.

I've three of these fakes. All are cosmetically good, though I had to repaint a 'gold' Leica black because its brass (stripped off its chrome) tarnished in tropical climate. One is an excellent black "Leica" but has an obviously (to Zorki fans at least) Zorki body. The third, though by all means excellent cannot shoot because it was given non-opaque red shutters.

Jay

 

[ZorkiKat]

Jay, thank you. I wasn't aware of the I-10 although it's easily different enough to be told apart from the Elmar. The engraving of the fake lens is rather crude which shows it to be other than Leitz manufacture.

Walker

Walker

The I-10 also looks shorter than the real Elmar. The front fascia has a shorter diameter as well. A coated I-10 from later FED are quite nice to use, even for colour photography. And amongst the Industar collapsibles, it would be the collapsible I-10 made for FED-2 which would fit correctly on the M Leicas. 🙂

 

[lushd]

Here's the answer I got from the seller:
"You are probably right; we have been contacted by others, but our customer was told it was genuine when he bought it. It is too late to cancel the auction. We wil notify the winning bidder."

 

[doubs43]

Here's the answer I got from the seller:
"You are probably right; we have been contacted by others, but our customer was told it was genuine when he bought it. It is too late to cancel the auction. We wil notify the winning bidder."

It sounds as if the winner will be given the option of not accepting the camera if they thought they had bid on a genuine Leica. That's about as much as the seller can do but at least they're willing to do the right thing. Good for them.

Walker