Collecting cameras: models, Soviet and East German cameras, and faults to spot

I am an investigator, but I am also a photographer and collector. Photography has been with me since my training as a Multimedia Producer, for work and for pleasure, and from there grew a collection of vintage cameras. It is no coincidence: observing, documenting and verifying belong to both trades.

And there is another point in common. A vintage camera, like evidence in an investigation, must be examined before it is believed. A shiny body can hide a jammed shutter. A lens that looks perfect may have fungus. And a beautiful "Leica" may be a retouched Soviet camera.

This guide is for those who want to start collecting, or collect better: the types, the most beautiful models, not necessarily the most expensive, the remarkable story of Soviet and East German cameras, and the faults to spot before buying.

The types: finding your way

Before the models, it helps to understand the families. Each has a different way of looking at the world.

Rangefinders

You aim through a viewfinder separate from the lens, and focus by aligning two images in the rangefinder. They are compact, quiet cameras, perfect for street and documentary photography. The reference point is the Leica, with the copies and rivals it inspired: Contax, Canon rangefinders, and the Soviet FED, Zorki and Kiev.

Single-lens reflex (SLR)

A mirror sends the image coming through the lens into the viewfinder: you see exactly what will be photographed. From the 1960s they became the standard for professionals and amateurs, with interchangeable lenses and, gradually, built-in light meters. It is the largest family and the most accessible for beginners.

Twin-lens reflex (TLR)

Two lenses stacked one above the other: the top one is for viewing and focusing, the bottom one takes the picture. You look down into a waist-level finder, holding the camera at chest height. They almost always use 120 medium format film. The emblematic model is the Rolleiflex; many others derived from it, down to the Soviet Lubitel.

Medium format

Not a type of camera, but a film size larger than 35 mm: 6 × 4.5, 6 × 6, 6 × 7 centimetres and beyond. It appears on TLRs, SLRs, folding cameras and rangefinders. The larger negative gives a quality and tonal rendering that 35 mm cannot match.

Folding cameras

The bellows fold into the body and the camera becomes pocketable. They were hugely popular before the war and in the early post-war years, in 35 mm and especially medium format. They are beautiful, light and often cheap, but the bellows are a weak point: check them for holes.

Other families

Viewfinder compacts, half-frame cameras (which split the 35 mm frame in two), swing-lens panoramic cameras, large-format view cameras: each is a world of its own, and many collections grow out of a single niche.

The most beautiful models (not necessarily the most expensive)

A premise: "beautiful" means many things to a collector. Design, history, mechanical feel, image quality. This list mixes icons and affordable cameras, because the pleasure of collecting does not depend on price.

The icons

They are magnificent cameras, but their price also makes them the most counterfeited and the most dubiously "restored". We will see how to protect yourself below.

Beautiful to use, at more human prices

• Pentax Spotmatic (1964): a compact, solid M42 SLR with through-the-lens metering. Paired with Takumar lenses, it is a classic combination.
• Olympus OM-1 (1972): a surprisingly small and light SLR for its time, with a large, bright viewfinder.
• Canon AE-1 (1976): hugely popular, a symbol of amateur photography in the 1970s and 1980s.
• Pentax K1000 (1976): basic and almost indestructible, used for decades in photography schools.
• Yashica Mat-124G: a medium-format TLR with a light meter, the most accessible gateway to the world of the Rolleiflex.
• Olympus Trip 35 and the compacts of the 1960s and 1970s: simple, beautiful and still fun to use today.

And then there is a whole world that, for quality and price, deserves its own chapter: the cameras of the Soviet Union and East Germany.

The most fascinating story: how Soviet and East German cameras were born

To understand these cameras you have to go back to 1945. This is not just the history of photography: it is a history of war reparations, dismantled factories and relocated people.

Before the war: the FED of Kharkiv

The Soviet story actually starts before the war. In Kharkiv, in Soviet Ukraine, a youth labour commune named after Felix Dzerzhinsky had set up workshops. In 1932 its new director proposed copying the German Leica, and from 1934 mass production of the FED began, its name taken from Dzerzhinsky's initials. According to the company, over 8.6 million were produced in its history (Wikipedia).

1945: Germany divided, and so was Zeiss

At the end of the war, the heart of German optics lay in eastern Germany. Carl Zeiss was based in Jena, and Zeiss Ikon, the division making cameras such as the Contax, had its factories in Dresden.

Jena was initially occupied by the US Army. When it became clear the region would pass to the Soviet zone, the Americans moved part of Zeiss's staff and expertise west. In 1946, in Oberkochen in West Germany, a business restarted that soon took back the Carl Zeiss name.

In the Soviet zone the opposite happened. According to historical accounts, the Soviet Union moved much of the plant and equipment as war reparations. The lines of Dresden's Contax production ended up in Kyiv, at the Arsenal factory (Wikipedia).

22 October 1946: Operation Osoaviakhim

It was not only machinery that moved. At dawn on 22 October 1946, in a single overnight operation, Soviet authorities took more than 2,500 German scientists, engineers and technicians, together with about 4,000 family members, and moved them to the Soviet Union. The operation, known as Osoaviakhim, mainly targeted rocketry, aviation and telecommunications, but the Jena optical industry, with Carl Zeiss and Schott, was the subject of a specific order. The specialists returned to Germany between 1950 and 1958, most of them before 1954 (Wikipedia).

The birth of the Kiev cameras

With the Contax equipment, work began in Kyiv to restart production. According to archival research published by Kosmo Foto, on 1 and 2 May 1947 the first batch of five Kiev II prototypes was assembled: in essence, a Contax II made in the Soviet Union. That is why a Kiev rangefinder and a pre-war Contax look so alike, and why their lenses are largely interchangeable.

From the second half of the 1950s the same Arsenal factory went on to produce medium-format SLRs derived from the Swedish Hasselblad 1600F, which led to the Salyut and later the Kiev-88, nicknamed the "Hasselbladski". A word of realism: the quality of these cameras varied greatly from one period to another.

Other Soviet cameras worth knowing

• Zorki, made by the KMZ factory in Krasnogorsk near Moscow: another family of rangefinders derived from the screw-mount Leica.
• Zenit, also from KMZ, from 1952: the first Soviet SLR, built from the Zorki body. More than 12 million Zenit-E cameras and variants were produced (Wikipedia).
• Lubitel, a LOMO medium-format TLR derived from the 1930s Voigtländer Brillant and produced from 1950 to 1988 in several versions (Wikipedia). Simple, light and excellent stopped down: a cheap gateway to medium format.
• The lenses: the standard Helios 58 mm f/2 derives from the pre-war Zeiss Biotar design, and many Jupiter lenses follow Sonnar designs. Today they are much sought after for digital cameras too, for their distinctive rendering.

East Germany: Dresden, Jena and Pentacon

In East Germany the optical tradition did not stop, but passed into the hands of state-owned enterprises (VEB). That era produced cameras of real importance in photographic history:

• Exakta, by Ihagee in Dresden: the 1936 Kine Exakta was the first 35 mm SLR to achieve real popularity. Its main controls, including the shutter release, are on the left-hand side: a detail that makes it unmistakable.
• Contax S (1949), by Zeiss Ikon Dresden: among the first SLRs with a pentaprism for eye-level viewing, and among the first with the 42 mm screw mount that would become famous as M42, later adopted by a great many manufacturers (Camera-wiki).
• Praktica, born in Dresden in 1949 and produced until 2001: East Germany's M42 SLR, robust, ubiquitous and very cheap today (Wikipedia).
• Pentacon Six: a 6 × 6 medium-format SLR, the eastern "sibling" of western medium-format SLRs, compatible with a wide range of Carl Zeiss Jena lenses.

The Dresden companies were merged in 1959 into a single combine, named VEB Pentacon from 1964. The name, it is said, comes from "Pentaprism Contax".

A curiosity: two Zeisses and two Contaxes

For decades there were two Zeisses: Oberkochen in the West and Carl Zeiss Jena in the East. Trademark disputes led to odd solutions: western products sold in the Eastern bloc bore the "Opton" brand, and eastern products sold in the West bore "Jena" or "Zeiss Jena". After the split of Zeiss Ikon, the eastern side lost the right to use the Contax name in western markets, and exported under the name Pentacon.

For a collector, this story is not just an anecdote: it explains why very similar lenses can carry different names, and why certain engravings make one example rarer than another.

The faults that plague vintage cameras

This is where the photographer and the investigator work together. These are the most common problems, and how to spot them before paying.

Hardened grease and lubricants

Greases used decades ago harden over time. The symptoms: a very stiff or jammed focusing ring, slow shutter speeds that stick or stay open too long, a self-timer that jams. It is extremely common in Soviet cameras and in any camera left unused for years. The fix is a full service (a CLA: clean, lubricate, adjust), not a few drops of oil, which actually makes things worse.

Light leaks

The foam seals around the back door and the mirror crumble or turn sticky. The result is streaks or patches of light on the negatives. Touch the seals: if they leave black, sticky residue on your fingers, they need replacing. On folding cameras, check the bellows with a torch in a dark room, looking for holes.

Pinholes in the shutter curtains

Many rangefinders, including Leica, FED, Zorki and Kiev, have rubberised cloth curtains. Over time, and especially if the camera was left with the lens pointing at the sun, they can burn and develop small holes. Open the back, cock the shutter and look at the curtain against a strong light.

Fungus and mould

Enemy number one of lenses. Spores thrive in damp, dark places such as a cellar or a closed bag. With a torch shone through the lens, fungus appears as branching filaments, like cobwebs. In early stages it can be cleaned; if it has etched the coating or the glass, the damage remains. And it can spread to other lenses stored nearby.

Haze and balsam separation

Haze is a uniform veil caused by lubricants evaporating inside the lens: it reduces contrast. Balsam separation affects cemented lens elements: iridescent or milky areas appear at the edges. The first can often be cleaned; the second requires complex work.

Oil on the aperture blades

If the aperture blades are shiny and oily, oil from the focusing mechanism has migrated. The aperture becomes slow or sticks, and on SLRs with automatic stop-down, pictures come out overexposed. Turn the aperture ring and work the stop-down lever: the blades must snap instantly.

Light meters and batteries

Many light meters from the 1960s and 1970s ran on 1.35-volt mercury cells, now discontinued. Modern batteries of the same size have a different voltage and can skew readings. Selenium cells, which need no battery, wear out with age. A meter needle that "moves" is not necessarily accurate: compare it with a reliable meter or a smartphone app. And always open the battery compartment: corrosion from a forgotten battery can damage the contacts.

Mirrors, prisms and dampers

On SLRs, check the mirror (scratches, marks) and look through the viewfinder: dark patches or dull areas may indicate a prism losing its silvering. The foam damper that cushions the mirror can crumble and dirty the focusing screen.

Radioactive and yellowed lenses

Some lenses from the 1960s and 1970s contain thorium glass, used for its optical properties. Over time this glass yellows, giving images a warm cast; prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light can reduce the effect. The radioactivity is weak, but it is sensible not to keep them against your body for long periods.

Beware of fakes

As with collectible comics, which I covered in the article on Dylan Dog fakes, value attracts forgers in the world of photography too.

"Fakeicas"

The best-known case is fake Leicas, which collectors call Fakeicas. According to one of the most cited guides, over 99% are Soviet FED or Zorki cameras that have been modified: new engravings, different finishes, sometimes military markings added to make them look like wartime rarities (Mike Eckman). The most useful signs:

• a rangefinder window whose frame runs right up to the top plate;
• crude, unpainted engravings on the shutter speed dial and frame counter;
• no rangefinder coupling wheel, replaced by a metal arm;
• curtains without stitching at the edges;
• poorly defined edges on the top plate.

A practical rule: a "military Leica" at too good a price, engraved with eagles and swastikas, is almost always a fake. Genuine military-issue Leicas exist, but they are expensive and are bought with documentation and from trusted sellers.

"Rebuilt" examples

More insidious than fakes are examples assembled from parts of different cameras, or repainted to look rarer (for instance in black, often a more sought-after finish). Check the serial numbers of body and lens against known production records, where they exist, and be wary of "as new" finishes on seventy-year-old cameras.

The checklist before buying

1. Shutter: test every speed, from slowest to fastest. Slow speeds must last a plausible time, without sticking.
2. Lens: torch through the lens, looking for fungus, haze, scratches and separation.
3. Aperture: dry blades that close and reopen instantly.
4. Focusing: smooth ring, no stiff spots. On rangefinders, check that the images align at infinity.
5. Seals: back door and mirror, looking for crumbling or sticky foam.
6. Light meter: compare against a reliable reading; battery compartment free of corrosion.
7. Authenticity: serial numbers, engravings, consistency between body and lens.
8. Seller: verifiable history, detailed photos, return option. When buying remotely, ask for specific photos of the critical points.

The golden rule is just one: a vintage camera is worth as much as the servicing it has had. A beautiful example never opened by a technician is a gamble. A less brilliant one that has been serviced, with a guarantee, is often the real bargain.

Why collect today

You can collect as an investment, out of nostalgia, for the beauty of the mechanics. I believe the best reason is another: to use them. A camera was born to take pictures. Loading a roll into a Rolleiflex, or into a Kiev rebuilt from the ruins of Dresden's industry, means touching a history no museum can tell in the same way.

And if you come across a camera with a mysterious history, an odd engraving or a provenance to reconstruct, that is the kind of investigation I love. Historical research is one of the services I offer, and due diligence before a major purchase is not just for companies. The archive also has the history of the Enigma machine, another mechanical marvel born in Germany.