Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/01/15

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Russian "Leica"
From: nathan at nathanfoto.com (Nathan Wajsman)
Date: Mon Jan 15 21:10:39 2007
References: <200701122340.l0CNdiGd074474@server1.waverley.reid.org> <43C4A4D8-67FB-4AF8-A42E-4E1DD88096CB@optonline.net>

I have never understood the attraction of the Nazi-engraved Leicas. What 
is the point? On one level, a Leica is just a thing, an inanimate 
object, so it does not matter whose hands held it in the past. On the 
other hand, we do attach emotional meaning to things--we keep useless 
objects as mementos of relatives who have passed away; or we keep things 
because someone significant owned them before--for example, one of the 
few pieces of Leica equipment I still own is the CL I once bought from 
Sonny, because I like the thought that someone whose photography I like 
a lot used this camera before me.

So, why would anyone in 2007 want to use a camera with a swastika on it? 
Maybe members of the BNP or some such outfit, but I doubt that they use 
Leicas...

Nathan

Lawrence Zeitlin wrote:
> I fell victim to the lure of e-bay and bought a Russian imitation 
> Leica IIIa with an "Elmar" f3.5 50mm lens. It is described as being in 
> excellent condition and the lens is described as "not bad." The camera 
> was being sold by Adorama, a firm that I have found to be quite 
> honest, so I feel that I probably wasn't being screwed too badly. 
> Besides the price was less than $100. Anything priced that low with 
> the name Leica on it has to be a bargain. The pictures show the camera 
> to be a reasonable facsimile of a pre-war Leica and has a little eagle 
> and swastika Nazi symbol on the top plate along with a serial number 
> in the 19xxxx series.
>
> I know nothing about the Russian imitation Leicas. Can anyone 
> enlighten me? Can it actually take pictures?
>
> Larry Z
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>
>

-- 
Nathan Wajsman
Almere, The Netherlands

Opportunistic Image Acquisition

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In reply to: Message from lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin) ([Leica] Re: Russian "Leica")