Photographica: The Lure Of Soviet Cameras

This week I purchased a Soviet era Moskva 5 from a camera dealer in the Ukraine. The Moskva line of cameras was made by the KMZ camera works as a copy of the Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta medium format rangefinder line. The Moskva 5 went beyond mere imitation, adding a self-timer, removing the flip-up view finder and moving the internal view finder off to the far right side of the camera body creating a severe paralax. Despite the paralax, affcianados swear by the Moskva 5 and so I took the plunge, too. I'm looking forward to its arrival.

I've been looking at other Soviet era cameras, too. Zorkis, FEDs, Zenits and such all of which were copies of German Leica or Zeiss Ikon Contax 35mm rangefinder cameras. There are those who swear by the Soviet cameras and the example photos I've seen are truly remarkable. For those who can't afford a genuine Leica or Zeiss Contax, these Soviet cameras seem to be a very good second choice.

Wayne Cornell has an excellent site devoted to Soviet era 35mm cameras and Valdis in the Ukraine has a marvellous site on a wide variety of Soviet cameras ranging from medium format cameras such as the Moskva and Kiev to 35mm cameras such as the FED, Zorki and Zenit.