Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/03/29

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To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: Russian Leica M
From: Edi Weitz <weitz@math.uni-hannover.de>
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 1996 22:00:48 +0100

At 09:52 27.03.1996 -0500 Marc James Small wrote:
>I'm not certain what Mr Thijs means:  to my knowledge, there has never been
>an SPS (Soviet/Post-Soviet) Leica M clone of any sort, though the Russians
>manufactured thread-mount Leica derivatives (the Zorki line) until the late
>1970's and the Ukrainians made and are still making their Leica II clones in
>the FED line from Karkhov.
>
>I would appreciate more information.

I just came into this a bit too late because I wasn't at home for some days.
I think Henk was talking about a screw mount copy. At least these could be
seen on German flea markets in the last months. They tried to copy the Leica
II but they made some little mistakes. This type of copy can easily be
identified by it's brass finish. 

A camera dealer told me that these copies were built using original German
equipment that was brought to the U.S.S.R. after World War II. The cameras
that are sold now are not older than five years (according to him) although
they seem to use some kind of "stone-washing" to make the leather case look
old. 

Bye, Edi.