Fotokor 1

I have Fotokor questions:

I have 5 of them in my collection, and one has serial # on the lens which is 5513... but... when all my other ones just say Ortagoz, this one says Uvelichitelniy Ortagoz.. (Enlarging Ortagoz)... do all early lenses say that or I got some weird lens on it.. This is regular GOMZ shutter version... both lenses are13,5cm/F4.5... I also have earlier Compur unit but that one says VOOMP on it... so... any thoughts?

Vlad.

And also this one has GOMZ logo shutter on it, where all my other GOMZ Fotokors have VOOMP logo and GOMZ writing.. I need to take pictures... give me a few...

This is the camera in question below:



And this is my regular Fotokor 1 for comparison:



Vlad

I only have 2 Fotocors. One with silk-screen printed labels on aluminum and second with stamped labels on brass. Second also has chrome focusing plate. Could Fotocors have regular and deluxe vertions?

Yea, I got that variation too, I guess I'm just curious about the lens... never seen the "Uvelichitelniye" before...

Vlad.

Vlad,
From the engraving on the shutter speed plate, your camera appears to have characteristics of FOTOKOR-1"C", according to Princelle's classification on page 34. Also, the photograph of bottom camera on that page has the same engraving.
I don't know about that lens and only have one FOTOKOR (Compur shutter). To me the lens looks original and is probably some variation of Ortagoz.
It can be helpful to look at the serial number of the camera too, which you can do by rolling the focus knob forward since the number is hidden under the flat chrome focusing plate beneath the bellows and lens-shutter assembly (it is on the flat front of the camera that folds down to open the camera up).
One million FOTOKORS were made, so the number can be large. For example the serial number on my fairly early Compur FOTOKOR-1"A" is No. 44319 and the lens is Ortagoz Anstigmat # 22587.

Regards, Bill

My Compur Fotokor has BTOMP ("ВТОМП" in Cyrillics) Ortagoz lens #3724, although the serial number of camera body is comparatively high #552562. Unfortunately I have no this camera in my office to check the number once more ...


Regards,
Aidas

I have just bought this old photo recently for Bill's collection. Is the man holding Fotokor, or another similar camera? I can't recognize it ...

Bill: Thank you for pointing out the serial #!! I looked EVERYWHERE before I could not for the life of me find it... .. ok now I moved the rails, the serial # is 207458 on the camera with the "Enlarging" lens..

Aidas: that is not a Fotokor for sure, looks like a German camera... maybe a Plaubel camera or a Zeiss or a Goerz, they all used Compur shutters and had a viewfinder in the middle unlike Fotokor who had it on the left....



Vlad

Bill,

my Compur Fotokor serial # is 956369... what the...? How can that be?

Dear Aidas,
I would be very pleased to add that photograph to my collection, if that is your intention! To me it does not matter exactly if the camera is Russian or from some other country, only that it is used by a Russian photographer of some type from one of those countries, Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, etc.
Even in my camera collection I have several German and French cameras that have indications of use in Russia or Soviet Union, such as a retailers label. I am interested in the history of the use of photography in Russia and the Soviet Union and my collection of photographers using cameras is the most close to my heart. So, thank you my friend, for thinking of me.

Regards, Bill

Vlad,
If the serial number is that high, you must look at other attributes of your Compur-Fotokor to see if they match the early model. Look at the focusing index plate on the bottom flat plate, near or next to where you found the serial number. A different design of this plate was used on the early Compur models compared to later models. You can see this difference in the 3 illustrations in Princelle. It is easily possible to put a non-original Compur shutter on to a later Fotokor, either recently to get a better price, or in the past as the camera was being used, to replace the original Vario or GOMZ shutter. Also look at the shape of the metal fold out viewfinder which is different from early to late models.

Regards, Bill

quote:

---

Originally posted by nightphoto

Dear Aidas,
I would be very pleased to add that photograph to my collection, if that is your intention! To me it does not matter exactly if the camera is Russian or from some other country, only that it is used by a Russian photographer of some type from one of those countries, Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, etc.
Even in my camera collection I have several German and French cameras that have indications of use in Russia or Soviet Union, such as a retailers label. I am interested in the history of the use of photography in Russia and the Soviet Union and my collection of photographers using cameras is the most close to my heart. So, thank you my friend, for thinking of me.

Regards, Bill

---

You are welcome Bill! Just give me more time to assemble more samples of photos "Man with his camera" and I will send them all to you ...

Regards,
Aidas

Bill, thanks, I'll take a look, at first glance it does seem different, the rail bed lock hole is different from all the later models that I have, but unfortunately mine is missing the large foldout frame for sports finder. I'll compare the small details next.

Vlad.

Vlad.
You have not only an Uvelicitelni Ortagoz in your camera with a thinner bezel as you have a different engraving Gomz shutter. This seems to be one of the first models "All Russian" or one the trial prototypes used to be given to reknown photographers for trial of the camera quality.
As the lenses for enlarging are exactly the same, they used them also in Photo cameras. Those "Ortagoz" (should it be "Ortho Gomz"?) were one of the first produced. The all hand engravings prove that.
Fotokor are direct descendants of Certo cameras of the same vintage. Those CertoTrop were the best German quality/price offer.

Luiz, very interesting - a trial camera, eh? Too bad it's a modified RED version with soviet coat of arms on it (i'll add it to catalog soon).. But it's in great condition, I may actually use it to take some pictures with my rollfilm adapter that Bill was very kind to give me for xmas.

Vlad

Hi friends,

I'm puzzled with my Compur Fotokor.
Like Vlad, I did'nt find this serial number. Reading Nightphoto post, I searched again and again.
Then I went to Fotoua and saw where the s/n should be.(Under the focusing plate)
So it appears that my Fotokor has none.
Some photos of this camera will help to identify what I think is a N°1…
All comments are greatly welcome.













Thanks to all.
Michel

Hi Michel!

You have a VERY early one it seems, with the non-rectangular viewfinder and VTOMP stamping on the back. My Compur is #467097 and has the serial under the rails where yours doesn't and mine is hand-engraved and not even stamped. Also mine has GOMZ stamped on the back. Also you have a rectangular hole on the rails and not the semi-circle which also points to a very early origin. My Vario version of Fotokor (albeit already with square viewfinder) has this same rectangular hole.

So it's very possible they weren't even numbering these at the early stages like you have. Very nice find! Congrats!

Cheers,
Vlad.

Oh and your Compur has VOOMP lens where mine has Ortagoz.. it also seems to me that they used Compur shutter throughout production when they had a shortage of GOMZ shutter because i wouldn't be surprised if there are number of models with GOMZ shutters and serial numbers lower than my 467097..

Cheers,
Vlad.

Hi Vlad,
Many thanks for your investigations !
BTW, the Compur shuter #s/n is 683203.
Does that means something ?

Cheers,
Michel.

Hi Vlad,
I have 10 different Fotokors from the early Fotokor-VOOMP with Compur/Ortagoz-VOOMP (s/n 41273) to the late Fotokor-GOMZ with GOMZ/Ortagoz-GOMZ (s/n 913324).
BUT among them there are three, which are really uncommon:

1) Fotokor-VOOMP with Compur/Ortagoz-VOOMP (s/n 408624, could be acc. SSK-book Fotokor rel.7, but not with Ortagoz-VOOMP!)



2) Fotokor-VOOMP with Compur/Voigtlдnder-Heliar (s/n 58536) ?!



3) Fotokor-GOMZ with T-26 (s/n 537736) ??!!





Regards, Alexander