Cigarette Pack "Spy" Camera

Kiev-30 (with adaptations) ... 17 mm film ... lens: Industar-M / 23 mm f.3.5 .
body serial no. 7674744
year: 1976 .... factory: Kiev-Vega, Kiev, USSR with non- factory adaptations .

Notes: This camera looks to have been well used, as evidenced by wear and patina to the cigarette pack disguise. Some say that cameras such as this were used by the KGB or Stasi, and Princelle says that these cameras were "massive smoke screens covering for the true spy cameras of the F-21 or "Totchka" type". This camera looks a bit well-used to have been put out as just a smoke screen, but who actually used it and why is a mystery. .... The clip that is visible in the front is used to cock the shutter by pulling it down. It has been soldered onto the body of the camera. .... There is a round brass button soldered onto the camera's shutter button that allows the shutter to be tripped by pressing the back of the cigarette pack in the right spot.

This type of camera is similar to the John Player models and may have been the inspiration for them.