When the first Leica was
introduced at the Leipzig Spring Fair in 1925, it was quite a sensation. It was the first time that such a small,
portable camera was capable of delivering professional results. Thus it is not surprising that other camera
manufacturers took note. As a matter of
fact, the entire photographic industry at that time soon got involved to come
up with 35mm cameras of their own.
The 1930s saw the first imitations
and the first attempts to bring construction standards in line with those of
the new small format camera. While German
companies like Zeiss respected the Leitz patents and worked on coming up with their
own 35mm camera designs, camera companies from other countries showed much less
respect for the rights of the German company of Ernst Leitz.
Especially in Russia, the
Leica was at the very front of an industrial venture that was to span a period
of over 50 years. The Leica II with its
built-in rangefinder was studied, analyzed and finally reproduced in functional
prototypes starting as early as 1933.
Leica II
Prewar FED, the first Russian Leica copy to be mass produced
The Leningrad mechanical
works were the most advanced in Russia at the time. They built prototype copies of the Leica
under the VOOMP name, while the FAG company in Moscow built a few examples
under the FAG name. Both models were
exact copies of the Leica with the exception of not having an accessory
shoe. In 1934 the Leningrad and Moscow
prototypes were abandoned and the construction of Russian Leicas began at the
FED works in the Ukraine.
While these Russian Leica
copies do look very much like a genuine Leica, a bit closer inspection will
quickly reveal that these cameras do not approach the overall quality of a
Leica. They usually operate a lot rougher,
without the legendary smoothness of a Leica.
But there is one other, sure way to tell if it is a Russian copy or the
genuine Leica product. All one needs to
do is to remove the lens. This will
reveal the rangefinder lever of the camera.
While all Leicas have a roller at the end for smooth operation, the
Russian copies have only a simple cam.
Leica rangefinder lever with roller
FED with simple cam at the end of the rangefinder lever
Export Zorki, Standard Zorki, Synchronized Zorki
From top to bottom:
The prewar production of FED cameras
was over 150,000. That included a number
of experimental cameras with a top shutter speed of 1/1000 sec. and some had a
slow shutter speed dial like the Leica III.
It is thought that some even had a large film capacity of 250 frames,
like the famous Leica Reporter.
Leica Reporter with attached electric motor
Some of the prewar FEDs were
even engraved with the Leica logo on the top plate. These were meant to be exported to Western
Europe. While the standard FED cameras
all were equipped with a 50mm f/3.5 lens, a copy of the Leitz Elmar, labelled
as Industar, the lenses for the Leica engraved cameras even used the Elmar
designation on the lens.
Fake Leica Engraving on FED
Fake Leica engraving on Industar lens
The beginning of WWII
resulted in the suspension of the manufacture of FED cameras for the civilian
market in 1941. Production started again
in 1946 and went on without any major changes until 1955.
Between 1949 and 1950, about
1000 FED cameras were modified with the Contax type bayonet mount to be able to
use the original Zeiss lenses for the Zeiss Contax. In place of the usual FED inscription, the
top plate of these cameras was engraved with a five point star, surrounded by
the Cyrillic letters TCBCB.
In 1948 the Krasnogorsk
optical works near Moscow started to produce FED cameras. Initially their cameras were engraved with a
combination of the FED and Zorki label, Zorki meaning ”sharp sighted” in
Russian. But after just a few examples,
these cameras switched to just the Zorki label.
These cameras were absolutely identical to the FED and they too were
produced without any changes until 1955.
In 1954 a variation of the
Zorky 2 cameras was made with a short production run of approximately 1000
cameras. They had an identical camera
body as the Leica they were copied after, but were equipped with a long prewar
Zeiss Contax style self-timer lever.
During the military
occupation of the cities of Dresden and Jena, the Soviet troops removed the entire
Contax works and took all machinery back to Kiev. That led to experiments of combining elements
of the Leica and the Contax. This led to
the design of the Zorki 3 which differed from the original Leica copy in many
respects. The Zorki 3 was equipped with
a large viewfinder/rangefinder very much like the one in the Contax. The camera also had a slow shutter speed
selector.
Standard Zorki (bottom) and Zorki 3C
with Zeiss Contax style rangefinder/Viewfinder
In 1955 the FED too was
equipped with a large viewfinder as the FED 2 model. This remained in production without any
significant changes until 1970. In 1956
the FED 2 was equipped with a flash synch outlet but was left otherwise unchanged. The Zorki C, Zorki 2C and Zorki 3C also
changed to offer flash synch, but not without a redesigned camera body.
FED 2, Leica body with Zeiss Contax style viewfinder
With the Zorki 3 and even more
so with the FED 2 and Zorki 3, the Russian camera industry finally moved away
from the Leica style. But they
maintained the Leica screw mount for another 30 years.
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