KGB Lighter camera

An interesting article that I've found in Shutterbug from February 1991.

Hi Vlad,
Nice article, although I suspect that it is not made by KGB, but possibly a Polish creation or maybe an East German camera. Seems rather large and flashy to use as a covert camera by any actual intelligence agency. Just my opinion.

Of course we now have more knowledge and examples of Soviet production of surveillance cameras than they did when tghe article was written. I think it is doubtful that any real KGB used cameras were in the West until after the end of the Soviet Union.

Regards, Bill

Hi Bill,

you may be right all other real spy cameras that we know of are somewhat muted and not as "colorful", although we do know that KGB was using a lot Minox cameras in its arsenal. Just a sidenote about Jack Naylor- he is a very reputable and knowledgeble source, having traveled the world in acquiring his cameras, and possessing probably the largest camera collection in the world.

Vlad

Vlad,

Jack Naylor passed away November, 2007.

His first collection was sold to a Japanese collector who built a Museum to display it in. Jack had some "leftovers", and also started a second collection which was auctioned off after his death.

What is rather humorous is that a few of his "Gold" and "Special" Leica thread mount cameras listed in the auction catalog were Zorki and FED cameras. A couple of us from the Society contacted Guernsey's (in addition to many others) letting them know of their errors. Notice was sent out to those who requested the catalog letting them know the corrections for those few cameras and other items which were also not described correctly.

Steve

Vlad,
Other than the case of the American, John Walker, who was relaying information to the Russians, I haven't heard of the KGB using Minox cameras. No doubt they may have, from time to time, as did most espionage services, but the motorized clock-work Totchka S-252 was developed by the KGB for use in place of the Minox. They even made a model of it with a small viewfinder.
Jack Naylor is a good source, but when this article was written not so much accurate information had been revealed about KGB cameras (or about some of the other Soviet cameras) and it was an easy time to pass fakes for real as can be seen by the wide belief that the John Player cigarette cameras and the "Ring Cameras" were used by the KGB when in reality they were Polish fakes. Many still believe they were KGB!

Regards, Bill

Bill, I am also inclined to think it's a souvenir camera, so you don't have to convince me here . Regarding KGB using Minox, here's a video unfortunately in Russian only but at one point there is a former KGB officer talking about using it.

http://play.ukr.net/videos/show/key/def128f405a2f314946defab23852533/


From what I understand Minox was used sparingly as well by KGB from reading various sources, I believe H. Keith Melton had something about it as well as G. Abramov if I'm not mistaken.



Vlad

If you guys are interested I have a couple of more of Jack Naylors articles from 80s-90s about Soviet cameras, they give a good perspective about state of knowledge about these cameras at that time. Let me know I'll scan them if there's interest. There are ones about John Player Special, F-21, Sport, Moskva, etc..

Vlad,
I know these cameras, they are NOT a KGB cameras, but specials issues extra for collectors with Minox 'A' inside. I have seen some of them on German Photo-fairs.

Regards, Alexander

Thank you Alexander, this is very helpful!

Vlad