Russian Rangefinder Cameras

[David Holden]

I am thinking of buying a rangefinder. Does anybody have expereince of Russian rangefinder cameras, in particular the Fed 3 and Zorki 4 or 4k?

Any advice or comment?

 

[Gerods]

I am thinking of buying a rangefinder. Does anybody have experience of Russian rangefinder cameras, in particular the Fed 3 and Zorki 4 or 4k?

Any advice or comment?

I had a friend that had a Zorki 4 But this is going back to the 70s. He did say that it was a cracking camera. I never got to use it myself but I did see the results of it, and very good they were.
I remember him telling me that it was based on a Lieca model.
But I don't know how true that is, Although there was a similarity.

 

[CT]

The Russians are classic copiers of everything but they do it rather well. Like anything Russian, the engineering and finish isn't always elegant but it just goes on forever. Their rangefinder cameras were copies of Leica and Contax cameras. I did have a Fed3 and it was excellent, My abiding memory of it was the wind on knob being so stiff it made my fingers sore, but it produced lovely crisp images and the rangefinder was very accurate.

The Zorki 4 was a bit more up market looking and the nicest one was probably the Leningrad if you can get hold of one (Contax copy)

You wouldn't be doing anything wrong buying any one of them IMO.

 

[David Holden]

Thanks for the comments.

 

[gerardsaunders]

I learnt 35mm use on a Fed 4 back in the late seventies, bought it from a junk shop in Hastings for £4, half of which I had to borrow. Very well built and capable of reasonable results. Feels like a 'proper' camera.

 

[David Holden]

Thanks. I will be looking out for a Zorki 4k, Fed 3 or possibly a Kiev

 

[Irritable_Rabbit]

This needs a punt upwards just for the best bit of camera p0rn I've seen in a long while.

Thanks CT.

 

[dazzajl]

I've always had a much bigger soft spot for contax's than leica's and in totally daft fashion, I'd rather have a contax rip off than a leica copy.

 

[maddog.mark]

Have just got round to putting a film in my Fed 2 and am enjoying playing with it, only time will tell as to how it (meaning me) gets on...

 

[David Holden]

Thanks again.

 

[desantnik]

The Fed is a lovely piece of kit - very nice!

And a camera made in a factory named after Iron Feliks himself, how cool is that 8)