There are fake “Leicas” altered with relatively high enough quality as to be considered serious fakes not just “art cameras”, but in most cases the work is still not good enough to fool the diligent Leica collector who knows what to look for. Many of these fakes are easy to spot with exotic colored faux leather coverings, chrome removed – polished brass ‘gold’ metal parts, serial numbering not consistent with Leica and exotic additional engravings such as German Swastikas or ‘Luftwaffe’ however not all the fakes are so easy to spot. Stupid Americans! Buying Zorkis with Leica engravings….HA HA HA HA.” But they must have done it with huge smiles on their faces, knowing they were defeating the American capitalists at their own game. “I have no idea who turned out these little gems, if it was one technician, a team of them, or a whole group of small competing companies. That is over 1.5 million Leica II look alike cameras produced by the Soviet Union’s FED and KMZ factories combined. An estimated 835,502 combined FED-Zorki and Zorki I cameras were produced by KMZ from 1948 – 1956. Zorki ( Зоркий, meaning “sharp-sighted”) is one of the most widely known Soviet photo brands. When FED returned to normal operation, KMZ continued to produce rangefinder cameras under the Zorki trademark. The KMZ plant started making the FED camera under a joint FED-Zorki logo in 1948. After the war, FED had troubles resuming production. ![]() Around 750,000 FED cameras were produced from 1934 to 1955, with a disruption due to the factory’s destruction during WWII. In 1934, true production began of the FED, a near identical copy of the Leica II. Dzerzhinsky (founder of the Soviet secret police, the Cheka’.) In 1932, a work unit was set up to plan the production of cameras. ![]() The FED factory in Kharkov, Ukraine was founded in 1926, and was named after Felix E. Pictured is a Leica III, similar to the Leica II except for the addition of the slow shutter speed dial visible on the front of the camera to the left of the lens.
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