What have you just BOUGHT?

Another made in USSR occupied Germany was the Optima, this one is the Super. They took over the old Olympia factory after the war, when Olympia engineers relocated to Western Germany. Circa 1960.

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JoeV said:
Groma Kolibri, circa 1957. Here’s mine:
View attachment 4835556


This one was obviously produced for the export market (being a US keyboard rather than German). They were made by German workers with German pride, hence the elegant design and chrome plated trim.

Another brand was the Optima Super, made in the former Olympia factory.
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Rheinmetall also made nice typewriters. (For a brief time they made Exa cameras also.)
 
AndyCapp said:
My Estonian neighbor was involved in smuggling typewriters to his home country –which had ceased officially to exist when the Russians took over.
It was a risky business. He had balls. He stood up, spoke his mind, and took action, unlike us Finns, who bent backward not to provoke the Bear. We had a lot of in-house communists at the time.
Imagine, we thought that the USSR was forever.
Nothing is.
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Well, when you have a long border with the USSR (and having fought them directly in WW II), I think you have nothing to apologize for. And welcome to NATO!
 
largedrink said:
Found a Ricoh 519 rangefinder (1958?) for the price of a couple of coffees. It works perfectly and is in beautiful condition. I may run a film through it after cleaning the lens out. Interested if anyone has used one and how the lens performs? It's a 6 element, 4.5cm f1.9 Rikenon.

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Really interesting (and well-made) cameras. The trigger wind isn't unique but certainly is unusual, and convenient. A hot shoe on a late '50s camera, how rare is that? And of course the "see-saw" focusing like on the Diacord, another nice feature. And really easy access to adjust the rangefinder -- an access screw on the top (below the "Nine") for vertical, and next to the viewfinder window for the infinity adjustment.

If I understand correctly, Ricoh (then Riken) was established as a photographic research foundation. That might explain their somewhat unusual designs (they had a spring drive rangefinder around the same time too). They were a "minnow" in the Japanese camera lake but they seem to have managed to survive and thrive over the years, unlike some much more well-known competitors.

I also have the 500, which has a 2.8 lens instead. but basically the same camera.
 
KoNickon said:
Well, when you have a long border with the USSR (and having fought them directly in WW II), I think you have nothing to apologize for. And welcome to NATO!
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We have not forgotten what it was like to be against a superior enemy with no allies except Sweden. We have forgotten what happened in the arms deals with the US and Great Britain (it was still called "Great"9), how the French promised and backed up, and how Sweden SKF made huge profits selling ball bearings to all warring sides.
Finland was left out of all deals because everybody feared Stain and wanted to remain his trusted person. This was the most shameful era in the history of the US of America.
Deliveries were annulled. We had no ammo, material, or trained men to counter the great attack that would end our national history.
Hitler to the rescue! The priority was wheat. Then artillery, shells, Bf109, and He 111 followed. German troops arrived in Lappland to halt the Bolshevik breakthrough. After the Winter War, Finland had nothing to shoot at the Soviet invaders and nothing to eat, either.
Hitler planned to take Leningrad and eradicate it. There was no evacuation, only mass graves. The plan was to kill them all.
Mannerheim clearly stated that Finland would not take part in the siege of Leningrad. He kept his word, which facilitated his situation in the coming negotiations with Stalin.
There is a history. We avoided the Russian invasion. We had to live with the humiliation of being "supervised" by illiterate savages.
We had to support the KGB lies on the radio and a lot of nasty little things just to piss us off.
Today, the shadows of our home communists have risen. They get a disproportionate amount of attention on our state-owned radio.
Moles are everywhere. I stopped following the Finnish X out of disgust.
We might have an effective army after a drastic change in attitude and physical performance.
Right now, it does not look very promising.
 
Nicca Type 5 with the flip open back. My new favorite barnack, base is a smidge wider than a IIIc but only noticeable when comparing directly. Bottom plate is also about 3mm longer than that of a IIIc bottom plate. Height of the camera matches a IIIc unlike some of the other later Nicca/Tower models which are taller.

 
Contax lenses destined to be used on the Z8: From 11 o'clock, clockwise -

100/2.8 Makro Planar
28/.2.8 Distagon
50/1.7 Planar
35/2.8 Distagon

Taken, ironically with a 50 Summicron in a Fotodiox helical adapter mounted on the Nikon Z8.

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I had always wanted to shoot a Contax RTS III. When it came out, with its vacuum back, my photo-geek brain was just at the right level of "if they advertise it, it must be true." Sure, I recognize now that the feature, while an engineering marvel, was one more thing to break AND probably wasn't going to turn my snapshots into art. Sure, the film would have been flat, but really . . . who cares?

Still, those Contax lenses just had the right amount of unobtainium in 'em that I could never really get them out of my head. Fast forward several decades . . .and along comes the Nikon Z8 with all its "lensmount? We don't need no stinking lensmount" swagger. So now I can have my cake and eat it all day long. So this is a bunch of new-to-me Contax lenses in pretty great shape, all photographed with a 1980's Summicron all strapped on a modern, cutting-edge piece of photographic excellence. I'm a little verklepmt over here.

What's next? A Pentax SMC-A/Contax resolution face-off? Razor sharp photographs of my cat? More cameras and coffee? I dunno. . . all I know is that once light rays pass through these babies it will carry with it the ineffable pixie dust of photo-excellence. I know we are in agreement about the death of the camera . . .and perhaps of photography in generall (nawww... just kidding), but I honestly think it is a better time to look through a viewfinder than it ever has been before. Excelsior! y'all.

p.s. these all came from Japan used, of course, and arrived last week while I was out of town. Don't think I have ever seen cleaner equipment, except maybe the 35 above, which came without lenscaps (boo) and showed signs of wear on the lensmount. Read those eBay description carefully. cats and kittens!
 
c/y Contax glass is so nice on Z digital! I've got that set plus the 85/2.8 and the 135/2.8, as well as the 60/2.8 C Makro.

I have no native Z mount glass. I've heard it is stellar but I'm more than happy with my modern Contax digital. 🙂

28/2.8 Distagon from Sunday

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Livesteamer said:
Don't forget the Finnish soldiers who fought bravely against a much larger enemy and lasted far longer than anyone expected.
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My father survived two bullet wounds. He was 21 when the war started. Three years of his youth in the forests of Karelia fighting a war he knew we could not win. The syndrome did. Forgetting is not an option.
We know Russia, we know the propaganda, and we know how much trust they deserve. I hope that Putin will leave us alone. Attacking Finland would be costly and give him nothing. He has his grandiose delusions, though.
 
KoNickon said:
Really interesting (and well-made) cameras. The trigger wind isn't unique but certainly is unusual, and convenient. A hot shoe on a late '50s camera, how rare is that? And of course the "see-saw" focusing like on the Diacord, another nice feature. And really easy access to adjust the rangefinder -- an access screw on the top (below the "Nine") for vertical, and next to the viewfinder window for the infinity adjustment.

If I understand correctly, Ricoh (then Riken) was established as a photographic research foundation. That might explain their somewhat unusual designs (they had a spring drive rangefinder around the same time too). They were a "minnow" in the Japanese camera lake but they seem to have managed to survive and thrive over the years, unlike some much more well-known competitors.

I also have the 500, which has a 2.8 lens instead. but basically the same camera.
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Thanks for the information, I was wondering whether those screws were for rangefinder adjustment, very useful!
 
p.giannakis said:
I' d love to see some pictures taken with it. I am a fun of Rikenon glass.
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That's good motivation for me to run a film or two through it, thanks! It will be fun to use the "triggermatic-action lever" (as it is labelled in the user manual) and see how that lens performs. I quite like fixed lens cameras too, no decisions about which lens to use!
 
largedrink said:
That's good motivation for me to run a film or two through it, thanks! It will be fun to use the "triggermatic-action lever" (as it is labelled in the user manual) and see how that lens performs. I quite like fixed lens cameras too, no decisions about which lens to use!
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I've used pretty much all the k-mount 50 Rikenons (except of the exotic f/1.2) and they are all great. My favourite was probably the XR 50f/1.7. Great glass and cheap.
 
While I'm waiting for my Mojo to return, I ordered a very used Nikkor 35-70/3.5 manual focus zoom. It will be my second one--my first is now so loose it sounds like a percussion instrument in a Latin band. With the exception of the 43-86, many of the early Nikkor zooms are outright marvels. 25-50/4, 28-45/4.5--some sweet lenses there. The only downsides are their maximum aperture and dark screen focusing.
 
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