New impressions from Belarus

Hello,

Yesterday I have finished my weekend trip to Belarus. I suppose my late impressions should be interesting to many members of this forum indeed.

First of all I was asked to give you the Best Regards from Viktor Suglob &Co! And special thanks to camera collectors, who gave him an invaluable information for the new book! I was told, that accumulation of data is already completed and the book is waiting to be issued. He didn't tell me the concrete date, but expectations goes for late spring. I was very lucky even to see the draft copy of the Works. To say the truth, I was impressed a lot ...

Although I have visited Viktor almost a year ago, I have found many new unique cameras in his collection. It's only 200 km from my town Vilnius to Minsk, but we have some problems with Belarussian Visas. Otherwise I would spend all my weekends in Minsk untill Viktor's door would be closed finally to me ... [:D]

I was introduced with few very serious camera dealers and here I have first results - my camera budget after last weekend is empty for few coming years ... [:D] I came back from Belarus with few unique cameras in my pocket: the genuine Fed-NKAP "RED FLAG", Selena Automat, Siluet Rapid Auto, prewar Smena, Duty camera (complete set), traffic camera "Selena" (complete set) plus 5-6 great cameras more. I was very impressed to buy quite rare camera Zenit-15M with 1s-1/1000s shutter speeds. This camera is identical to camera VIZIT, you just need to replace name labelings indeed. I had an opportunity to buy few more unique cameras, but the prices were too high and you always may have problems with Belarussian Authorities in the Border ...

Hoping to place few photos from my trip later this week.

Best Regards,
Aidas

W O W !
But what is VIZIT camera?

Smena rules

Aidas,

Please show us Selena Automat when you get the time. It is very rare and congratulations to buy one!

Regards, Bill

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by cedricfan</i>
<br />W O W !
But what is VIZIT camera?

Smena rules
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Juhani,

Vizit was conceptional "elite" camera by BeLomo. After KMZ prohibited to use Zenit brand on belorussian cameras, few copies of VIZIT were produced. Thanks to Vlad, We already have VIZIT picture in Wiki Catalog (see Belomo Zenits).


Regards,
Aidas

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by nightphoto</i>
<br />
Aidas,

Please show us Selena Automat when you get the time. It is very rare and congratulations to buy one!

Regards, Bill
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Bill,
I will do it for sure. I'm very busy next two days, so I will place it on Thursday, ok?

Regards,
Aidas

Aidas, I am burning with anticipation! [:)] I hope you will have time to add these into catalog as well! I also envy you very much for seeing the advance copy of Viktor's book [;)]..

Juhani: http://www.ussrphoto.com/Wiki/default.asp?WikiCatID=73&ParentID=1&ContentID=618&Item=Vizit

Vlad

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by AidasCams</i>Vizit was conceptional "elite" camera by BeLomo. After KMZ prohibited to use Zenit brand on belorussian cameras, few copies of VIZIT were produced. Thanks to Vlad, We already have VIZIT picture in Wiki Catalog (see Belomo Zenits).<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Thanks, I did see it but forgot. It looks more like BEHNT = ZENIT to my eyes I guess, so I forgot what it really says.

And soon Vilnus will be a mecca for FSU-rarities, so no need to get Belarus-Visa?

Smena rules

Let's introduce our friends ... I'm a big man in the left, Viktor Suglob stands in the middle and another author of the book - Sergey Kathergin in the right site. We are listing a draft-copy of the new camera book [:)]

http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/IMG_2647.JPG

... Sergey is investigating my new purchase. Did you know, that at least 6 versions of Siluet Rapid Auto existing? He found my version in the book and have told me a lot about this beauty ...

http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/IMG_2654.JPG

Stop teasing us with the book Aidas!!! [:D][:D][:D][:D][:D] I'm just kidding... [:)] so is it in color???

I will ask Viktor to pay me for advertisiment ... [:D] Good idea, Vlad - thanks!

Curiosity: what language do you use? I am not sure if russia is spoken in Belarus, and if I am correct eg Ukraina has a different language although understandable?

Smena rules

Everyone speaks Russian in FSU [:D]

Congratulations to Aidas on his fantastic trip, and thanks for sharing this unique experience with all of us.
Further congratulations to Aidas on the cameras that he managed to bring home, I'm personally especially envious of his "Fed Red Flag" as this is the only camera missing from my own collection of Fed 1's.
It seems like Viktor's book will take the collecting of Soviet photo equipment to a whole new level, and probably inspire many new people to start collections of their own. This especially applies to the Russian Federation because there has not been any reference book like this available in the Russian language before.
Up to this point in time Princelle has been our "Bible", and with good reason it's an excellent reference book. But from what we already know thanks to Aidas Viktor's book will provide much more information, around 1,200 cameras listed, as opposed to 400 in Princelle, (three times as many).
The book will no doubt provide answers to many questions and mysteries. I'm sure that it will also inspire us to ask many more questions, and discover new mysteries, but that's what collecting is all about. We love a challenge and a mystery that brings out the detective in all of us, don't we!!!
So once again, thanks Aidas, and of course thanks to Viktor and his co-authors. I am very much looking forward to the day when I can purchase the book.
regards, Jim

To Juhani: yea, belorussian have their own language, which is similar to russian, but I can not understand half a words. Unfortunately belorussian language goes to "dead" status, while only russian language now for use ...

To Jim: thanks for your good words! [:)]


Regards,
Aidas

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by nightphoto</i>
<br />
Aidas,

Please show us Selena Automat when you get the time. It is very rare and congratulations to buy one!

Regards, Bill
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Dear Bill,

I have placed the photos of my Selena Automat recently. Hope you will like it ...

Regards,
Aidas

40 only, so practically no hope to ever get one..

Smena rules

Juhani,

I was practically thinking the same, but I have got one ... [:)] ... that means everything is possible in our small world ...


Regards,
Aidas

Thanks for putting up the photos of Selena Automat, Aidas. It is a beauty and you are very lucky to have it! Very nice!

Regards, Bill

Thanks for the impessions and the pictures, Aidas!
This site is a sort of an Ali Baba's cavern! [:)]
It's always a delight to discover some very rare cameras...

Amitiés. Jacques.