The Leica fakes

Hello,
I quite like fake Leicas, for some reason :-) But not the ones with swastikas or strange engravings, nor the modified Zorki C.
But some of the ones that pass themselves off as Leicas do look rather pretty and imaginative.

Here are a few photos of my ‘Leicas’:

First, one of the loveliest ones I received just the other day. The wooden panel is beautifully crafted, and the brass has a lovely shine. It was made from a late FED 1F or 1G
Tip: Place the brass parts in an ultrasonic cleaner and add a teaspoon of citric acid powder.





This one was converted from a Zorki 1D. The Leica engraving is too big.





The next one is from a Zorki 1C. I like the black paint.





This one was made from an early FED S. The Leica engraving looks very good.





And the last one was made from an early FED 1a, maybe in the numeres around 7000. It has no serial number! :-)





Feel free to add your own Leica fakes to this thread :-)

Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de

these are great! Although very sad about 1a fake.. I also have a FED-S Leica although mine isn't as nice as yours. It's amazing how it was miscalculated that these unaltered would cost so much more in some cases than real Leicas. 😂

Bad picture, must be 25 y old...

But what about this:

Vlad,

your looks a bit weird because of the different colors of the chrome. But the lens engraving looks better than on mine.

Yes its a bit sad about the 1a, but fortunately is was not convertet to a "Kriegsberichter-Leica" ;-)

Ulrich

Juhani,

your Gold-Leica seems also to be made from a late FED 1f or 1g.

The other one is a fake of a Shanghai 58-1. That is their logo.

Ulrich

Yes, I have also an original Shanghai :)

My turn for some Leica fakes...





A Leica fake, but from which camera? No real idea. The lens is an Elmar without number (so before 1932), which corresponds to the body number as a Leica IA or IC.

An original Fed 1a with its 1 turn lens, all that converted into a Leica II D. Alas... (already shown).

The original Fed 1d S body s/n 128698 with a fake Summar/genuine Fed 2/50mm engraved with the same serial number...

A Leica fake, based on a 1d/1e S, with a curious CZJ Tessar of the 1918/22 years...

A fake Leica still based on a 1d/1e, but with a genuine Elmar s/n 500716.



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Probably the finest engravings of my Leica fakes. Still with a "converted" Fed 2/50mm lens in beautiful condition.
Amitiés. Jacques.

PS: Vlad: some problems to put in order text and photos inside a post. Hence too my 6 posts for 6 cameras. But Ulrich has no problem, so it's me!

Jacques,
thanks for showing your beautiful "Leicas" :-)
The last one looks really nice, specially the engravings on the lens front ring.
For the first one I have no idea what the source for this could have been. I looked in "Leica Copies by HPR" but have not found a camera with such a rewind lever.

Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de