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View Full Version : The Poor Man's Iskra....

Jocko
09-27-2007, 04:19
A typically well-informed e-bay seller reveals that those naughty old Russkies didn't just stop at Leica copies! :)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1952-SOVIET-Agfa-Jsolette-CAMERA_W0QQitemZ130155937266QQihZ003QQcategoryZ117 17QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Cheers, ian :)
LOOP
09-27-2007, 05:25
Hello. I have 2 iskra one with leightmeter one without ; the range finder is a bit stiif, but the lens is perfect. What is your question ??:o
Jocko
09-27-2007, 05:30
Hello. I have 2 iskra one with leightmeter one without ; the range finder is a bit stiif, but the lens is perfect. What is your question ??:o

Hallo Loop - I also have an Iskra :) I was simply amused that (possibly because of the growing interest in FSU cameras) the seller had listed an Agfa Isolette as a Soviet camera :)

Cheers, Ian
Solinar
09-27-2007, 05:50
Hello Ian, that Isolette I is wearing an early post-war Compur Rapid shutter - which were commonly used from 1948 to 1952.

The lens looks to be an uncoated Agnar from the same time period.

Not only is the seller's geography off by a few hundred miles, but he or she missed the date of production by nearly a decade.
Nickfed
09-27-2007, 06:47
Pretty wierd. The ad shows two different cameras. The top picture is like nothing I have seen, with one button on the body. The lower ones show an early 50s Isolette w/ f4.5 Agnar and Compur Rapid to 1/500 exactly the same as mine.
pshinkaw
09-27-2007, 07:02
The reason I bought an Iskra in the first place was because I had so much trouble acquiring an Isolette III (uncoupled rangefinder) at a reasonable price. I was outbid on e-bay 6 times over the course of a year. I finally called up a Russian camera vendor on the phone and bought one for for about $20 less than the lowest auction price for an Isolette III.

He sent me two cameras to try out and asked me to pay for one and send the other back.

The Iskra is actually a copy of an Agfa Super Isolette (w/coupled rangefinder). It is VERY hard to find. I've only seen a few of them on e-bay and I think they typically sell for $150-$200 +.


The Pumpkin lot shot was made with this Iskra.

-Paul
ZorkiKat
09-27-2007, 07:21
Hallo Loop - I also have an Iskra :) I was simply amused that (possibly because of the growing interest in FSU cameras) the seller had listed an Agfa Isolette as a Soviet camera :)

Cheers, Ian


Ian

The only Isolette I have, an "Jsolette V" came from a Russian seller...there must have been a lot of these there....competing with the Iskras

Jay
Jocko
09-27-2007, 08:05
Pretty wierd. The ad shows two different cameras. The top picture is like nothing I have seen, with one button on the body. The lower ones show an early 50s Isolette w/ f4.5 Agnar and Compur Rapid to 1/500 exactly the same as mine.

That got me intrigued, Nickfed! As Solinar notes, this is not the brightest seller - a quick google shows that the top picture is actually an Isolette V, "borrowed" from a Scandinavian site - http://www.minhembio.com/Zark/51760/ , whilst the text is lifted from Roland and Caroline - http://www.rolandandcaroline.co.uk/isolettei/isolettei.html . As the latter is described as an FSU enthusiast, the seller must have made 2+2=5.

Paul, my Iskra has leaky bellows and pathetically I've yet to try a film to see if the wind-on works, and thus if replacement is worthwhile. But they are gorgeous cameras....

Incidentally, I bought a beautiful, near mint Isolette L, with an accurate meter. It came from a neighbour and had a good provenance, as her father, a merchant seaman, had bought it in Hamburg in 1961. He was so taken with photography that the next year he bought a Praktica and the camera had languished unused ever since. I wonder, Jay, if the Isolettes from the USSR followed a similar route? They must have been almost valueless in the west after the early 60s, but might have had some cachet as souvenirs and a "real German camera"?

Anyway, I had new bellows and a service from Certo 6, only to be deeply disappointed by the mediocrity of the Apotar 4.5. I wonder if something is not quite right... as usual!

Cheers, Ian
outfitter
09-27-2007, 10:30
Hallo Loop - I also have an Iskra :) I was simply amused that (possibly because of the growing interest in FSU cameras) the seller had listed an Agfa Isolette as a Soviet camera :)

Cheers, Ian
Sort of like calling real leather artificial vinyl!

Michael