Russian Cameras

BMbikerider · Apr 12, 2017

I came across this website when I was loking for something not connected with photography. The lists are quite comprehensive:-

sovietcams.com

There are a lot of items I had never seen before and an explanation of some of the more common cameras we see in the west.

Harry Stevens · Apr 12, 2017

It's telling me my Zorki's where made by Russian babes.......

Nice site. Clicky link here for idle fingers.

http://www.sovietcams.com/index.php?-886716444

pdeeh · Apr 12, 2017

It's a very interesting site indeed if you have got hold of something slightly obscure and want to know the history.
I even have a photo credit on it because one of my lenses is a version previously unknown to Aidas

zanxion72 · Apr 12, 2017

This one has been around for years. Very complete and comprehensive with several info not available everywhere else (especially some photos of prototypes).

Ko.Fe. · Apr 12, 2017

Where are not just Russian cameras. They are also Ukrainian and Belorussian cameras. At least for me as Russian. Calling Kiev as Russian camera is very silly these days. Well, if you are educated not just on photo cameras.

naeroscatu · Apr 12, 2017

Ko.Fe. said:
Where are not just Russian cameras. They are also Ukrainian and Belorussian cameras. At least for me as Russian. Calling Kiev as Russian camera is very silly these days. Well, if you are educated not just on photo cameras.

Ha, tell that to Putin

flavio81 · Apr 12, 2017

BMbikerider said:
I came across this website when I was loking for something not connected with photography. The lists are quite comprehensive:-

sovietcams.com

There are a lot of items I had never seen before and an explanation of some of the more common cameras we see in the west.

Yes, this is a good website.

For me the apex of the soviet cameras is the Kiev SLR line, specifically the Kiev-15 TEE.
You can call it "the russian Contarex". Looks like a real high-quality item. I wonder who in soviet russia was able to afford that machine. Or who used them.

Russia also had some special, obscure, hi-performance lenses, but those weren't mass-produced, they came straight from the GOI (the optical institute that designed the lenses). Normal, mass-production lenses were designed at the GOI and then built by the different factories like KMZ, Arsenal, LOMO, ZOMZ, etc.

BMbikerider · Apr 12, 2017

One camera seems to be missing though. Back in the early 1960's I owned a 'Start' SLR. It was a bit of a mixture with elements from Exacta, in that the release was on the front of the camera not the top and the release also stopped down the F2 58mm lens (Normal copy of the Zeiss Biotar I think) It had a film cutting knife also like an exacta but on the opposite side of the body.
There was a removable prism but no other finder. The Bayonet was unlike anything I have seen before or since. There was also a bayonet to 39mm screw thread adapter probably to take the same lenses as the Zenith 3m. Shutter speeds were 1 sec to 1/1000,
Also like the early Pentacon cameras the mirror was set in place when you wound the camera on using a thin woven cord to pull the mirror into place to focus the lens.

Russian Cameras

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