Nyet on Soviet Cameras

Before it collapsed the Soviet Union had its own internal infrastructure of technology:  cars, planes, and yes, cameras. Many of these cameras were (by Western standards) weird-looking, shoddy and downright horrible. Some were quite good though, and that's the potentially confusing part.

There are in fact so many of these old cameras floating around they've spawned their own internet acronym: FSU cameras. The FSU means Former Soviet Union of course and includes cameras from such satellite nations as Bulgaria, Poland, Czechoslovakia, etc. Just do a little Googling and you'll find dozens of FSU camera sites and forums with overwhelming amounts of info (much of it conflicting).

But one thing these sites really don't make clear is that the guys fascinated with these cameras are mostly collectors, not photographers. They judge equipment based on rarity and cosmetic condition, not functionality and picture-taking chops. And while there were indeed some 'okay' Soviet-era rangefinders and some very good lenses I would nevertheless recommend steering clear of all of them if you're an actual photographer looking for a bargain.

Why?

Well, the USSR didn't collapse for nothing. Like all Soviet manufactured goods, even higher-end cameras and lenses suffered from horrible quality control. One sample might be great and the next dismal, and for the modern buyer there's just no way to know which you're getting until it's too late. What's more, if you're buying from someone within an old Soviet republic I have heard of all kinds of eBay fraud horror stories.

If I really, really can't talk you out of it and you've absolutely got to have a Soviet-designed camera then you could get a Kiev 88. This was the Eastern bloc answer to Hasselblad and, yes, some of the Kiev lenses can be mounted on a Hasselblad body. Just don't be fooled into thinking that you're going to get something as good as a Hassie when you buy one of these.

Pictured above: A very rare Nikon FG 'Bakunin' model specially built for the 1973 Nixon-Brezhnev summit. *

*No, it's not a real camera. So don't email.