11/27/2024 02:21
Hello,
I'm not a very active contributor to this Forum, I need to say.
But also, I don't have Facebook or any other social-media account, besides whatsapp, to quickly keep in touch with family, friends etc.
This specialized Forum with its branches is an invaluable source either to the beginner or to advanced enthusiast and collector of cameras and optical equipment from the former USSR.
I've been a systematic collector of these cameras since when as an exchange student I moved to Warsaw in 1986. I had with me my Kiev-4A purchased in Venice in my early teens and my "advanced" 35mm. reflex, the Praktica B-200E.
Then, from 1989 onwards, most of Italy's flea markets were full of optical equipment from the former socialist countries, where I've avidly bought (often for nearly nothing), pieces that satisfied my collector's ambitions.
In the early 2000s, I've decided to part with most of the collection, keeping for myself just what remembered some "adventure", or common friends. The passion remained though, and this forum is my main source of information and research.
In the last 15 years, I've started to buy again ex-USSR cameras and accessories, mainly of the Kiev brand, or panoramic cameras (I've contributed, here, to the discussion re. the Horizon 205-PC.
Thanks to this Forum and the enthusiasm of who keeps it alive, anyone with specific interests, can find a precious place, like a living museum with library and archives...
A warm thank you from Italy,
Enzo