Topic
Topic author: cedricfan
Posted on: 20090420124419
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
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
