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Juhani Halmeenmaki
cedricfan
Finland
1020 Posts
My Collection
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 Posted - Apr 20 2009 : 12:44:19 PM
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One very interesting case: Siluet-EL.
Now that there has been many threads about fakes and possible fakes: First of all let me remind you that my friend, from whom I bought this, never fakes anything by himself, and he does sell everything as he bought them. He also has everything stored in boxes, so nothing gets mixed. So if anything is fake then he bought it as such, but those are rare occasions. And a long story below to make it all more reasonable before making any judgements.
This Siluet came with a FINNISH instructions booklet, which led me to investigate more. I digged my archives, and found out that Koneisto sold these for two years, or at least had them in finnish camera sales catalogues. Koneisto (http://www.koneisto.fi) was owned by USSR and imported all techincal equipment to Finland. In that time (late 70ies) sales of USSR-things here was going down fast, even Lada sales. So they tried everything, even importing more camera models, which usually is not a good strategy.
At that time japanese cameras were already hit in Finland, and the price difference for a Siluet (300 FIM) against japanese (400 FIM) was not much. So you may guess how well it sold. Here in Turku (3rd biggest city of Finland) I can not remember to have seen anything else than Zenit-TTL for sale at that time. And I was a Zeniteer then, and had very little money, so always hunting camera shops.
The instr manual pictures have a Siluet with same western ASA range (400 max) as the EL, unlike the latin text version "Siluet Electro" that I have. Camera in those manual pics is a latin "Siluet Electro", but the catalogue pics have a cyrillic text version. So really mixed up illustrations. But keep in mind that here a cyrillic text would have been suicide, not even the old communists that we had wanted that!
So my judgement is that this camera was renamed FOR Finland or IN Finland. In Finland if some idiot had ordered them as cyrillic. For Finland is also possible, to disguise the roots. The name tag is a thin metal foil glued in place, which was not something that would have been made as easily then as today. And the size is too perfect to the space so that it would have been taken anywhere else.
So the possibilities that someone made only a few of these name tags at home, or to fake, are most unlikely. Too hard work for a small series, and we would have seen another one somewhere if pro fake. If they were made for some hundred finnish cameras then it is no wonder that we have not seen them yet. They are forgotten in the owners drawers, or thrown into junk as unwanted, not valuable, you may know finnish market for USSR-cameras from my postings...
Also this camera was not expensive, and I think even the finnish manual is rare enough for the price that I paid. So no profit to anyone with that special name tag.
The camera itself is used only a little, which would be also typical to Finland. Two rolls each year, and that is it.
Best regards,
Juhani |
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Vladislav Kern
Vlad
USA
4252 Posts
My Collection
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Posted - Apr 20 2009 : 12:52:23 PM
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Errr... kind of wierd though that there is still Cyrillic on the lens.... but pretty cool variant! Congrats on the find!
Vlad |
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Vladislav Kern
Vlad
USA
4252 Posts
My Collection
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Posted - Apr 20 2009 : 12:53:06 PM
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| ... and it's camera #666 in the wiki catalog :)))) |
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Aidas Pikiotas
AidasCams
Lithuania
973 Posts
My Collection
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Posted - Apr 21 2009 : 07:26:38 AM
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Hi,
Juhani, my best congratulations!!!
Need to mention, that initially I was a bit sceptical about your new findings ...  But now I have to agree with your arguments indeed. Viktor Suglob once told me, that he saw a lot of odd name tags for cheap plastic cameras at BeLomo factory. These tags like "Elikon Polu-automat", etc. were probably prepared for new markets of BeLomo production. He was promised to get a real cameras with these strange tags at BeLOmo, that's why mistake was made not to obtain the single tags then ...
Your camera representing one of these odd versions, I think. Especially if it comes with genuine manual in Finnish language as in your case.
Let me show you a picture with forerunner of your Siluet-EL. This sample was found on the small catalogue of BeLomo production. Unfortunately I never happened to see it alive ...
http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/vilia-e_preseries.jpg
Best Regards,
Aidas
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Richard Nuttall
Poolhall
United Kingdom
163 Posts |
Posted - Apr 21 2009 : 10:40:11 AM
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Sounds about right to me, there is the example of the Zenit SLX, an 11 rebadged by or for TOE in England, so I would agree with Juhani, and congratulations on the find btw
Samsung GX-10,too many Russian Lenses, A lot of Zenit, some Yashica,and a Pentax Body also finally a Minox35GT |
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Luiz Paracampo
Luiz Paracampo
Brazil
2002 Posts
My Collection
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Posted - Apr 21 2009 : 8:58:29 PM
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Very intereting Juhani but this EL i believe that is really a variation of the Elektro version.
If you compare both, the Elektro has GOST sppeds to 250 and this EL version has one speed more goes to 400 equivalent 500 GOST
Regards
LP
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Juhani Halmeenmaki
cedricfan
Finland
1020 Posts
My Collection
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Posted - Apr 21 2009 : 11:22:38 PM
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| Like I wrote in Wiki already... |
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Luiz Paracampo
Luiz Paracampo
Brazil
2002 Posts
My Collection
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Posted - Apr 22 2009 : 1:50:19 PM
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Juhani
Ok but you did not emphasize the important difference.
Regards.
LP |
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Sliuet-EL
