How Good are Russian Cameras?

From the November 1958 issue of Modern Photography magazine.

 

 

Russian Cameras 1 sm 2

John Wolbarst looks at film developers.

 

 

Film Developer 1 sm 2

Royal-X Pan film in 120.

 

 

Royal-X Pan 1 sm 2

TLR problems.

 

 

TLR Problems 1 sm 2

Here is the 35mm column.

 

 

35mm 1 sm 2

Here is the Ways and Means column.

 

 

Ways and Means 1 sm 2

Do lens hoods improve picture quality?

 

 

WA 1 sm 2

Polaroid's new 4x5 sheet film.

 

 

Polaroid SF 1 sm 2

Is the Praktisix finally here?

 

 

Praktisix 1 sm 2

From Camera 35 magazine we have an article on Super Hypan film.

 

 

Super Hypan 1 sm 2

Here is their look at the Leica M-2.

 

 

Leica M-2 1 sm 2

Here is a fine article on Dr. Erich Salomon.

 

 

Dr. Saloman 1 sm 2

Here are this month's Modern Tests.

 

 

MT 1 sm 2

James Cavanaugh looks at lenses.

 

 

Facts 1 sm 2

Lou Jacobs Jr. looks at Thin-Emulsion Films.

 

 

Thin 1 sm 2

Tony Karp shows us some low-priced interchangeable-lens cameras.

 

 

Low-Priced 1 sm 2

Here are this month's camera equipment ads.

 

 

Agfa 1 sm 2

Here are this month's dealer ads.

 

 

BB 1 sm 2

A great look back, thanks. I think I may have this magazine among the many back issues that belonged to my dad.

Polaroid's new 4x5 sheet film.

 

 

Polaroid SF 1 sm 2

I really, really liked the Polaroid 4x5. If they still made it, I'd still shoot it!

Thanks Marc for these postings. This was a good month! The Salomon article is one of the best I have seen in magazines.

 

A very nice series by Robino in the Royal-X Pan test. The little boy would be about my age today.

 

Pentax K, Minox B and Leica M2 featured - that was some crop for this classy year.

Excellent, full of engrossing reading.The Russian Camera article was of particular interest to me, and the very informative article on Erich Salomon fleshed out my scant knowledge of this historic character. Thanks, Marc.

I have several USSR cameras and have really enjoyed using them. The glass is okay too. I like them because they are a tool of a bygone era. They compare okay with western cameras, but they are certainly not as fancy. That is not a slight to the folks that built and used them, they had different motivators than the west. If you enjoy collecting cameras, I suggest you look at these beauties. Here is my favorite FED 2 with a Jupiter 8 (50mm/f2).

 

FED 2 by Henry Chavez, on Flickr

I suggest you look at these beauties.

 

I'll second that! The amazing thing to me is that the Soviets took a couple of nearly hand-crafted cameras (Leica and Contax) and were able to convert them into really MASS-produced cameras that actually work (FED, Zorkii, Kiev).