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lushd

Donald
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Is anyone here also a member of the above? For the unitiated comrade it is an organisation for those who love former SU cars as much as we love our rangefinders.

It is led (if that's what you call it) by a chap called Julian Nowill and there is a Yahoo group called Russian Cars (or something) in which people exchange learned discourses about Lada carburettors and so on.

Julian has punlished a splendid book called East European Cars and you can find out more about his antics here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/3331917.stm

and here

http://www.plymouth-dakar.co.uk/

and all over the internet.

I did wonder if any UK residents might want to challenge the USSR to a photoshoot? They have meet ups for bragging, drinking and curry, just like us. I think it would be cool to picture some FSU cars with some FSU cameras?

Any takers - I am a member and don't mind proposing ...

(I drive a Skoda Octavia and take pictures with Zorkis)
 
Me again - response from the Yahoo group:

Hi Donald,

I own FotoKor, Moskva-2, FED, Zorki-4, Smena-6, Smena-8M and Zenit-212K.

I use Zenit-212K regularly and am thinking of getting new Zenit-KM.

Besides that, I own UAZ-469 and Lada-Oka 1113. However, I live in the
natural habitat of all the stuff mentioned above 🙂

Yours sincerely,
Dmitri
Moscow, Russia
 
I wrote to KMZ a few years ago saying they should consider making some more Zorkis - they would sell like hot cakes. No reply ...

Why don't we use our massive authority and gang up on the factory?
 
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Guys,
KMZ has finally finished the production of Zenit SLRs, because this plant is going to get rid off its photographic division. This is the final decision of the KMZ authorities!
As to the Zorkis, the production of the RF cameras was stopped on KMZ at 1980 (more than 25 years ago!) and all production lines were disassembled and went to scrap. The renewal of the production of Zorki cameras is impossible on KMZ now.
Please note, that KMZ is a plant, which primary objective was (and still is) to produce the optical equipment for military purposes and the production of the equipment for civil photography was always the collateral type of its activity.

Donald, I'm personally know Julian. He's a nice guy who really likes the Soviet cars. We met here in Moscow, when he came to buy some spare parts for his Moskvich and Volga 🙂
 
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lushd said:
I wrote to KMZ a few years ago saying they should consider making some more Zorkis - they would sell like hot cakes. No reply ...

Why don't we use our massive authority and gang up on the factory?
Click to expand...

I love Julian's book and have always wanted to join the USSR (so to speak!) Once I drove 6 miles past my destination because I was fantasising about driving a GAZ!

I share Donald's pain, because I once wrote to FED with very similar results 🙁 Yet I think the motor industry might provide some hope... There's a man in Bath who rebuilds and upgrades Morris Minors with parts made in Sri Lanka on a fair-trade, cottage industry basis. I have always been surprised that some of the craftsmen who produce fake FED\Zorki "Leicas" don't do something similar.

I know there's a modification/upgrading to produce Zorki 4s with TTL metering. Sounds tempting? Imagine someone in the FSU carried this out on a modest commercial basis - like ARAX remake Kievs. I think they'd do rather well.

Cheers, Ian
 
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Small world isn't it!

Now there's a dream - I have heard you can buy a completely new Jaguar E-type made of reproduction parts. I knew about the MMs anf the factory in Sri Lanka. Also until fairly recently you could get a new VW Beetle from Mexico.

Didn't realise that the Zorki lines were that dead - boo hoo! Also staggering news about KMZ - I am sure the decsion is completely correct commercially but it is like Mr Brunel announcing that he's built his last railway.

So gentlemen and ladies - if we can publish a book we can build a camera! How about it?
 
I see billowing smokestacks and waving corn, rushing locomotives and streams of combine harvesters, the wedding-cake towers of Moscow University and Sputniks wooshing through the sky... I see Zorki rise again!

I really do think that their would be a niche market for remanufactured, upgraded cameras. For example, Fed had a TTL version of the FED 5 in prototype form just a few years ago. So, there are plans and we know that it works. I'm willing to bet that the meter and whatnot would A) not exactly be rocket science, and B) fit perfectly well into a FED 3 or 5b, which cost virtually nothing here and doubtless less in the FSU. I wouldn't imagine that such a project was beyond the capacity of a company like DVD, who (I assume) already manufacture "leicas".

If only we knew 2 or 3 Olegs with a workshop....

It would not be the first time that a few ragged fellows have begun a revolution! Where Lomographics did it for loot, we could do it for love!

And the camera? We could call it the Jorge!
 
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lushd said:
Jocko - those winds off the Urals have affected your brain. I like it! But shouldn't it be a Jorgi?

Anyone daft enough to keep this idea going?
Click to expand...


Yes. Here he is. The wind off my urals is something shocking.

I can see the advertising.... A gorgeous female Ukrainian tractor driver, cornflowers in her hair, oil on her overalls, leaps from her cab, swinging her ever-ready case, and to the rousing chorus of all-union solidarity, the immortal slogan

"Hey There, Jorgi Girl!"

We can make it happen!




comrades not of a certain age etc may find this helpful - http://www.jacquedee63.com/georgygirl.html 😀
 
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Evgeny S said:
Guys,
KMZ has finally finished the production of Zenit SLRs, because this plant is going to get rid off its photographic division. This is the final decision of the KMZ authorities!
As to the Zorkis, the production of the RF cameras was stopped on KMZ at 1980 (more than 25 years ago!) and all production lines were disassembled and went to scrap. The renewal of the production of Zorki cameras is impossible on KMZ now.
QUOTE]
Its a great pity that Marenko was not given permission to produce the Zorki 35M designed in the late 60's early 70's. four prototypes were made but nothing came of it. Its a pretty camera, and looks like an improvement on the 4K. 🙄
Click to expand...
 

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John, camera designers on KMZ have produced a lot of prototypes, which could be the flashes on the photographic market, e.g. Kometa camera, which was the best RF system in 1950es.
But you must know, that in communist economics there were not needs to produce something complicated and expensive. No! It was considered that Soviet consumer needed something cheap and easy repairable. The main example of such policy is Zorki-4, which was simple in production and built like tank. 🙂
 
Very true Evgeny, however this design might have saved costs, as it incorporated parts in comon with the Zenit E. However they did their best.
Incidentally refering to an earlier post, we had a Volga Station Wagon on our farm in the 60's, the last I saw of it was being taken away on a trailer by a car collector when the farm was sold in 1974, I wonder where it is now? It was a real beast to drive, but built like a tank!
SEE http://www.nightphoto.com/z35m.html re the 35M. explains better than I can.
 
The 35m was essentially a further development of the Zorki S - Zorki 5 - Zorki 6 series which - with the obvious addition of a mirror box - was itself the basis for the Zenit-3M SLR.

My earlier joking aside, this indicates an important feature of Soviet design. Precisely because drastic changes were expensive, there was usually potential for incremental improvements within existing products. That makes upgrading/remanufacturing feasible. Leica remanufacted cameras - the idea only seems odd in our throw-away culture.

John, may I ask if your Volga was RHD? I know they used to sometimes show such cars at the London Motor Show - it would be fascinating if yours was one of those.

Ian
 
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John, may I ask if your Volga was RHD? I know they used to sometimes show such cars at the London Motor Show - it would be fascinating if yours was one of those.

Ian[/QUOTE]
Yes RHD, they were sold for a short time in the 60's alongside the Moscowich, in pre Lada times!! I remember it being used to pull a neighbours Land Rover out of a ditch!!
 
Sorry to interrupt. I just want to say that I read the title to this thread about 7 times before I realized the initials spelled USSR.
So, basically, I'm confessing that I'm a bit slow...and the OP is not.
You may now return to your on topic conversation.
 
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