Vote for F-21 on Wired

I apologize for my mistake. Ficus-3 is not a "finish", but some other characteristics.

I misred "prikrytie" as "pokrytie".

"Pokrytie" would mean "finish" or "covering".

But what does "prikrytie" mean? Any guesses (for the Russian-speaking)?

Vlad noted it as camouflage, which is close enough. maybe they meant the attachment type? Like the button attachment? or maybe this camera went into a pot with a ficus plant? Ficus was a common indoors plant in the USSR.

I am about take my irony back:-)

I wish we could find more passports and see what other "prikrytie" was available.

According to Abramov, the прикрытие is proper term used at the time for the attachments or camouflage accessories for Ajax cameras.

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Originally posted by Vlad

According to Abramov, the прикрытие is proper term used at the time for the attachments or camouflage accessories for Ajax cameras.

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This makes sense. I would be very interesting to get a list of these accessories.

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Originally posted by fedka

quote:

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Originally posted by Vlad

According to Abramov, the прикрытие is proper term used at the time for the attachments or camouflage accessories for Ajax cameras.

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This makes sense. I would be very interesting to get a list of these accessories.

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I should use 'preview' more often:-) It should read:

It would be very interesting to get a list of these accessories.

Yuri,

I believe these camouflage items are sometimes custom-made by one or the other agency using it...

So far known to me are:

Coat Button
Women's purse
Camera Case
Quartz Movie Camera (technically made for Nailon, but I'm still including it)
Belt Buckle

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Originally posted by Vlad

Zoom, we read the same sites ...

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No... G. Abramov have the same source... ;)

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Originally posted by nightphoto


I think Zoom is saying that Abramov got this information about Ayaks from another source, called "The AYaKS History". I would be interested to know about this book or site.

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Yes. This is Vladimir Alekseenko's historical work.
A very pressed text from his article you may read there: http://www.menswork.ru/Journal21/journal_21_46-51.htm

Thanks for the link, Zoom.

A very interesting article by Vladimir Alekseenko. It helps to put these cameras in historical context and show some facts about their technical development. I translated it from Russian using Google. I can see that it is where Abramov got much of his information and it goes into greater detail than he does.

Vlad there are other disguises for F-21 also, and I think most (but not all) are made by the "special workshop" for KGB, because most of these disguises have serial numbers that are similar in style, as are the technical mechanics and the parts. But no doubt when the F-21 was used by a different foreign service in another Communist Block nation or nation friendly to the Soviets, they sometimes had to improvise the disguise devices used with the F-21. Of course the Stasi in East Germany was also quite sophisticated in their technical surveillance skills and made some modifications and add-ons to F-21 cameras.

Regards, Bill