So I was thinking last night - in USSR, it's seems that each camera was a status symbol... here are the obvious choices that I think fit:
Smena - for university or school students Kiev (Contax) - for people with money (officially there were no rich people in USSR ) Zenit E - for advanced amateurs Agat, LOMO LC-A - for teenagers Leningrad - for local newspaper reporters Kiev MF SLRs, Salyut - for mid-level professional photographers Zorki 4 - for university students between Smena and Zenit FED-S - for officers Photosnipers - for lonely old ladies who like birds
haha, no on a serious note, it seems that certain line or model had been either targeted or adapter by a specific demographic, I'm just interested to hear which cameras you think were used by whom that you know of...
Smenas was camera of choice and necessity of solders in Soviet arm forces. As you may imagine cameras was prohibited for privet use on Soviet military bases. Smena was perfect camera to get around this. It small, light, cheep, easy to conceal, and always ready to use. It very reliable, does not need much maintainist, it could survive hot and cold. Actually this is how I start collecting cameras: when I was in high school my uncle, officer, give me probably 10 cameras, all in grim conditions, cameras was expropriated as contraband from recruits on his base. All of but one camera was Smena. Most popular was Smena 8M. All of them were dirty and rusty. Uncle told me that many cameras was hidden underground and may survive few generations of recruits before they was taken away.
Get me my borscht and my Kiev!
Posted - May 25 2008 : 12:26:55 AM
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