Russian Rangefinders

Rob MacKillop

Rob MacKillop

Edinburgh Correspondent
Can someone give me a rundown on the different Russian rangefinders? I'm just curious about all those Feds, Yashikas and Zorkis on ebay, all raging from £10 to £50.

Is it worth replacing my Pentax K1000 with one of these?

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Any poor-man's Leica's in there?

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As an aside, I've never seen such a good sales pitch as this one - a great read: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1934-Leitz-Leica-III-CLAd-/121048577857?pt=US_Vintage_Cameras&hash=item1c2f0eb741 Not Russian, but related to my thread.
 
If nothing else he sold me on receiving his newsletter.

"Yashikas?" Never heard of a Russian rengefinder by that name, Rob. There is, however, a Japanese brand called Yashica.

I have a Zorki C, a FED 3 a FED 5b and a Kiev 4a. The Zorki and the FEDs are Leica knock-offs. The Kiev is a Contax clone.

They are robust. However, you have to be carefull when you change the shutter speeds. You must cock the shutter before changing the speed or you could damage the mechanism.

The Leica knock-offs use Leica thread-mount lenses. (39mm.) The Kiev is a Contax mount as you can imagine. In my experience the glass is good and contrasty. Lens brand names can be Industar, Jupiter, Helios,...I'm sure there are others. Typically the cameras come with a 50mm. Mine are f2.

My Zorki C needs the shutter curtains aligned I think. My FED 3 shutter was hanging up last time I used it. My Kiev seems to have developed a light leak in the past year. Last time I shot the FED 5b I didn't have any film in the camera so it worked perfectly. (And the images were spectacular.)[doh]

OK,...that doesn't make them sound too robust, but they are and they'll last a while once CLA'd I think. They're fun to shoot with, too.

Here's a link to a little article about the Kiev that I drafted up a while back for the Film Photography Project:
Kiev 4A - The FPP Review! | Film Photography Project
 
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