Hi,

I'm thinking of bidding on a Russian Leica replica ZORKI-C, as a cheap backup for my leica. Are they reliable? Or has anyone done something similar and have some experience they can pass on?

Ken

-- Ken (kkwok@stanford.edu), September 27, 2001

Answers

Hi Ken and every Leica lovers,

It's not a real answer, but have a look on this web-site, I hope it will give you some help. I often heard good things on Zorki cameras. Best regards, Alain

-- alain.besançon (alain.besancon@chu-dijon.fr), September 28, 2001.

Excuse me:

-- alain.besancon (alain.besancon@chu-dijon.fr), September 28, 2001.

Sorry:

-- alain.besançon (alain.besancon@chu-dijon.fr), September 28, 2001.

Ken,

The Russian Leica copies are interesting but I don't know how reliable they are from personal experience. I once bought a Kiev (Contax iii copy) but the shutter was no good and I got rid of it. It is my understanding that QA was very poor in the Soviet era camera factories and that you need to inspect each individual camera before selecting the best you can find.

I think Alain (above posts) may have been trying to give you either this link:

http://www.camerasrussian.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv

or these:

http://www.cameraquest.com/fakerusk.htm http://www.cameraquest.com/rusky2.htm http://www.cameraquest.com/russia.htm http://www.cameraquest.com/soviet.htm

Good luck!

-- Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com), September 28, 2001.

There were some interesting comments about Soviet copies in general when I asked here about fake Leicas:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=006GWd

This is the most comprehensive site I've seen on them:

http://www.commiecameras.com/

(I won't even try to put the links in HTML!)

-- Richard Williams (richardw@icr.ac.uk), September 28, 2001.

P.S. there are 2 URLs per line for CameraQuest; sorry about that but the dumb server seems to ignore line endings unless there are 2 of them!

-- Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com), September 28, 2001.

Thanks Ray, I was obliged to send directly the adress to Ken (the first). I have absolutely no experience with Zorki; I was seelling cameras during a summer job when I was studient ... and numerous Zenit E (no report with our topic) were coming back because having making defects. My "conclusion" was "never buying it new but in second hand"; I did with success ..... but it's not a Leica !!! My regards, Alain

-- alain.besancon (alain.besancon@chu-dijon.fr), September 28, 2001.

the russian cameras i've used have been pretty effective but quite lacking in finesse if you're used to Leicas. some of them seem to be a bit prone to light leaks, but my zorki 4 has been functionally perfect and i can't complain about my zorki 1 either. a bit loud and clunky but they work, and at about $50 apiece you can take them places where you wouldn't want your leica to go.

rick :)=

rick_oleson.tripod.com

-- Rick Oleson (rick_oleson@yahoo.com), September 28, 2001.

The fit and finish varies significantly from sample to sample, and many cameras feel really rough on the winding, shutter release, etc. Because of the low cost, I know some people who bought a couple and keep the best one and sell/return the others. I did this a while back with a Kiev medium format camera (which turned out to be a total waste of money, but that's too far off topic to get into. By the way, I just bought a black 50 f1.5 Jupiter 3 Sonnar copy for a about the cost of a few B+W filters, and will report back on the quality of my "disposable Summalux" substitute after it arrives from Moscow.

-- Andrew Schank (aschank@flash.net), September 28, 2001.