Was he referring to the FED? (..and Kiev as well?)

[ZorkiKat]

In the 2/1954 issue of "Leica Fotografie" (issue which announced the Leica M3), Leica expert Walther Benser wrote:

"....It was only last year that the newspapers again announced that certain countries, in which Patent Law has been abolished as a 'bourgeois institution', had been constructing cameras which were reported to be the spit image of the German Leica. And there have been other instances where perhaps the resemblance has not been carried down to the last screw, where inventiveness has not drawn such deep draughts at Barnack's well. This was one of the consequences of war and perhaps we had best draw a veil over it, but you, dear reader, will understand this budding desire I feel to play the mouse in the drawing offices of some of these factories, which since 1945, have been having an easy time with German camera designs."
😀

Jay

 

[Jocko]

An interesting quote Jay - thank you!

It certainly sounds likes he's primarily referring to the Soviets - and perhaps to less notable attempts at similar cameras in Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland. From what I read, the first Cyrillic\Latin script Zorki 1s date from somewhere between 1951-53. Perhaps the first exports to the west had caused a stir? He could also be hinting at resurgent Japanese producers and the British Reid, which many think the closest of all Leica copies. There were certainly a lot of them about! 😀

Cheers, Ian