Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Russian Leica

I just bought this hand-customized Russian Leica copy on eBay. (For 30 Euros!)
Isn't it way cool?

13 comments:

Alex said...

I've got a drawer full of Kodak Instamatics, varying vintages, both mechanical and electric flash bulbs.

Interested?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Sorry, I mostly go for steel cameras.

Eric Hancock said...

That is wonderful.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Thank you very much.
I was thinking for a moment there that I was alone. :)

Dibutil said...

Fed is not Leica, although I do not know the particular differences. Apparently FEDs tear the film sometimes because of bad winding mechanism and some of them suffer from shutter problems. Usually if shutter worked from the beginning it would work forever.
The best part of the old Russian photo cameras is their smell...

:):):)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Sure, I would not buy one of these for work. I just like the way it looks.

Alex said...

Oh, I like it. That's a lovely jade colour. For so long cameras have just been very functional and rugged looking. It's nice to see these older cameras.

In the low end cameras they seem to come up with designs to distract you from whats inside.

Beyond the look of a camera, there is something to the feel. I liked the weight in my Halina and Ricoh, they sat well and were balanced. My Pentax's never felt the same, the lenses being heavier than the body.

There is something about the satin finish stainless steel, or brushed aluminium that you don't get with plastic and rubber. My older Pentax has a plastic grip and black steel body, the Ricoh had a thin leatherette layer which felt so much better.

There is also the smell of an older camera, the leather and oil(?) smell.

Then there are the sounds. My Halina had a whisper quiet shutter, the ratchet in the winder was light and fine, there was a soft reassuring click as the shutter rearmed.

Believe me, I would like to collect these as well, but there is only so much one can collect.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

"There is something about the satin finish stainless steel, or brushed aluminium that you don't get with plastic and rubber."

Exactly. I am hoping as the digicam market matures, somebody will start making "Feinschmecker" cameras again. (Means a gourmet. The word is used in Danish to mean somebody who has a refined taste in any area.)

I think they will the resolution and the features race are bound to peter out more or less, so somebody will start to compete on other things.

Alex said...

What I was hoping for originally was digi-film

Imagine a thin CCD and all the memory in a film can. You just flop this into the back of your favourite body...

Indeed, I also thought, what if the back door of the camera could be replaced with a digi back. I had a camera where the back door could be replaced for the time stamp etc.

Maybe there is a niche market for some module to work in legacy cameras like your 35mm collection.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

There was one around the millennium. And Leica had one for their SLRs until recently. But both were way too expensive for the capabilities.

Alex said...

For a 10MP capture retro fit to an existing SLR I'd probably pay up to, but not beyond $200, not with $600 cameras of the same resolution.

Duh, its the mirror that makes all that sound....

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Right. I am damn sure nobody can make it for less than... probably a grand. And then it would only fit one camera model. And how many would buy it? We can wish, but...

Alex said...

Nah, a digital door would need one electronic design, some mechanical interaction for shutter, though I'd just take it on "When theres light", and something to fool the camera into thinking it wound on, and is not out of film. So the electronics are common. The mechanicals the, you pick the three most popular bodies out there, and start like that.

Digital film would mimic the shape of a film can, and leader. The shape then fits all but drop in loads. Again, how do you synch to shutter? (there's light) and trick it into seeing the tension of the film on the take up spool.

The other challenge here, some cameras wind all the film into the camera first, then back into the can one by one (especially point and shoots - SLR users never open the back door by accident).