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Shiny shiny.


dougdarter

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Doug,

 

Nice arrangement! I hope you know that the "Leica" on the right is a Russian fake fashioned from a FED or Zorki.....

 

Which of the 135's do you find better - the Hektor or the Elmar?

 

Best,

 

Jan

 

Give the man a prize:D You certainly have good eyesight. It's faked up from a Zorki. I wondered how long it would take before someone spotted it - not long!

 

TBH, I don't find a lot of difference between the Hektor and the Elmar, except at below f8, the Elmar is a little sharper.

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Hi,

 

There are 4 obvious clues.

 

1. The rangefinder window is square. Compare it with the correct shape on the black Leica II. Even with the advent of the Leica III, the top righthand corner of the RF window is rounded, not square.

 

2. The shutter cup is milled, and has the typical Zorki shape, and thread for shutter release.

 

3. The body cover does not completely cover the front of the camera. It is shaped around the lens throat.

 

4. The lens is an 'Industar'. The aperture is changed with a milled ring, whereas with the genuine Elmar, there is a tab that can be pushed or pulled with the finger.

 

Less obviously, the engraving is too heavy, on the genuine item, it's much finer. The serial numbers on the lens and body are also wrong. The front body screws on the standard Zorki fake are also wrong - they are chromed. I have actually painted them black on this camera.

 

It is however, a very nice camera, and takes pics every bit as good as the LII and III - essentially because I use Leica lenses:p It also has a much brighter RF spot:eek:

 

There are a few (very few) Leica II fakes made up from early Zorki 1 models, which are actually indistinguishable from the genuine camera (unless you look inside). These are the very early Zorki 1's and they were exact copies. Not so easy to manufacture though, so the minor changes, both stylistically, and pragmatic (the threaded shutter release) were made. These original copies, and the original Zorki one, are actually worth far more now, than the Leica originals, and very collectible.

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