Had to disappoint a young lady

[markgay]

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A young lady in my office in Moscow told me she had a Leica at home and wanted to bring it in to show me.

 

She came in the next day and out of the leather, Leica-branded case popped what looked for a second like a Leica II.

 

But there it was.. the eagle and swastika on top and Luftwaffe engraving on the rear.

 

When are people going to stop wrecking perfectly good Zorki-S cameras by buffing all the chrome off, engraving them and pretending they're wartime booty?

 

It had a lovely brass heft, solid cast body and smoothly working shutter up the maximum 500th of a second speed.

 

While I could identify the camera beyond doubt as being Russian and had to disappoint my young collector friend, I have one question.

 

The screw thread lens was marked as a Leitz Elmar 5cm f:3,5. Now this could also have been the work of a counterfeiter but I've seen pictures of genuine Zorkis which also seem to have Leitz lenses attached.

 

Did Leitz at any stage sell lenses for the Zorki or was this just crude copying of the Leitz brand by the Moscow factory?

 

Regards,

Mark

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[brianv]

Chances are it is an Industar-10. Do the F-stops on the aperture and marks used for the DOF match? The Leitz lenses of the day had f12,5 and F18. Usually the copies have the Leitz style markings for the aperture, but leave F11 and F16 on the DOF marks.

[luigi bertolotti]

Chances are it is an Industar-10. Do the F-stops on the aperture and marks used for the DOF match? The Leitz lenses of the day had f12,5 and F18. Usually the copies have the Leitz style markings for the aperture, but leave F11 and F16 on the DOF marks.

 

... and beyond this, I seem to remember that the well known "Elmarski - Industar" has also the diaphragm blades in a different position from the old venerable Wetzlar... one can see it looking the lens from front and correctly illuminated...