Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/04/22
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Harvey, They are are pretty good deal. Arax cameras are not really manufactured under that name. The idea was to buy up Kiev's from the factory. Kievs from the factory are no big hit. All the pieces are (usually) there, but not at the right tolerances etc. So Arax completely dismantles them and reassembles the shutters and things like that with much greater precision. They can also polish and re-coat elements of lenses, in case you have a Summicron or Summitar with flaky coating (happens). They are a pretty competent group. Some of the lenses are gems. I think the standard is one of them. I'd go with a 120. Most people turn to them to get into wide-angle medium format at a reasonable price. In the USA I think a similar business idea has been picked up by the guy behind: http://www.kievusa.com/ He also works them over before he sells them. He doesn't have the same optical capacity though. A lot of people send their lenses to Arax for polishing and recoating. All and all, they have a good rep. Daniel On 4/22/06, Arche, Harvey <Harvey.Arche@jp2hs.org> wrote: > > Daniel wrote: > >Now, now. Not all is bleak: > > > >http://www.araxfoto.com/ > > > >Daniel > > These are new to me, but I don't pay close attention to the MF world. Has > anybody anything to say about them? At those prices MF would be hard to > not to move into. Its just too bad that the russian design esthetic for > cameras hasn't moved away from coffins and hearses. > Arche > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >