Russian Made Leica

[JMSetzler]

Does anyone have any information on these:

http://www.pbase.com/image/32604556

This is some sort of russian made Leica ripoff but I don't know much about the story behind them. I bought this on Ebay and would love to have some information about its background....

[vladhed]

That appears to be a Zorki 2C (http://home.att.net/~wayne.cornell/camera/zorkic2c.html) that someone has plated gold!

Looks like you're starting a nice collection of vintage rangefinders. I've started a page to document to assorted odd-ball stuff I've used over the years:

http://www.pbase.com/nnpc/testhtml

[JMSetzler]

It doesn't have the ZORKI marikings on it. It is dressed like a Leica and it even says Leica on it.... The Zorki's are all marked as a "Zorki" as far as I know...

[vladhed]

Here's a better reference:

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/iannorris/leicafake.htm

Yours is at the bottom.

[Doug]

Similarly, I have a Contax II with 50/2 Sonnar... or at least that's what it's marked (see below). But it's actually a Kiev 4 with a Jupiter-8 lens. There seems to be quite a little industry going on in the FSU states to modify the cosmetic appearance of old Soviet cameras and lenses to fake German ones.

[Oldprof]

Originally posted by JMSetzler
It doesn't have the ZORKI marikings on it. It is dressed like a Leica and it even says Leica on it.... The Zorki's are all marked as a "Zorki" as far as I know...


LOL!!! :D

[pshinkaw]

It is a polished brass Zorki-C (aka Zorki-S). The Zorki-2C has neckstrap lugs, the C model does not. The higher body style encases the flash synchronization which was not present on the Zorki-1 models.