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Before you buy a Soviet Camera

kosmofoto.com

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Re: Before you buy a Soviet Camera

#51

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

kevinstubbs wrote: post #50
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "But when the development started things often went wrong. Frontend, backend, dev-ops and other teams, had to crank out hundreds of thousands of Jira tickets, and their quantity, not quality, were the only thing that counted. To meet a quota, teams could substitute senior devs for more juniors, skip testing steps to speed up agile velocity – the list goes on.”

It's a comical comparison, but do any companies actually measure progress like this without even looking at the end result? Presumably if velocity stays high but everything is broken, somebody will say something (and hopefully not just continue with the broken process that produced the problem).

You'd be surprised how many companies have totally broken software development process.

Basically most companies where software isn't the core product and moneymaker (semiconductors, automotive, 100 year old german companies, etc).

Remember how the compilation time of Nokia's Symbian OS was two weeks?

As long as money keeps rolling in nobody cares that your development process is totally whack and your promotions as a dev come not from seeking to improve things but from learning these idiosyncratic process and saying yes to whatever your boss says. Ask me how I know.

Re: Before you buy a Soviet Camera

#52

Post by ruined »

old Zenits and M42 lenses are cheap enough that i could afford to get into photography a few years back when i was living the punk life. thrifted a "Kalimar" that had the original cyrillic under some glued-on aluminum plates, bought a hundred feet of arista and some empty cassettes. dev with coffee and fix with salt.

holga if i wanted to get even sloppier, lubitel for higher quality. you can scan 6x6 120 on a canoscan lide (or at the library) and get better-than-instagram resolution.

Re: Before you buy a Soviet Camera

#53

Post by michrassena »

maurits wrote: post #2

Old soviet lenses, like the helios, can be lots of fun and fit relatively easily on a mirrorless camera. The Chinese Holga is also a magnificent piece of plastic. See Mathieu Stern for inspiration. [1] [1]: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYX22a35sKhA0T6ee7uZfvg

The cameras are so-so, but the lenses for the most part have kept up with their reputation of having excellent optics. I don't think I can put them ahead of any contemporary lenses from Japanese top-tier manufacturers, nor would I pay a premium. But like a lot of Eastern Bloc equipment, they represent an interesting alternative universe of technology.

Re: Before you buy a Soviet Camera

#54

Post by michrassena »

dhosek wrote: post #8
maurits wrote: post #2

Old soviet lenses, like the helios, can be lots of fun and fit relatively easily on a mirrorless camera. The Chinese Holga is also a magnificent piece of plastic. See Mathieu Stern for inspiration. [1] [1]: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYX22a35sKhA0T6ee7uZfvg

I've got a Holga that I won in a raffle when my wife was in the photography program at Santa Monica College. One of these days I'm gonna track down some film for it and actually take some pictures (and then find somewhere I can get the film developed).

Not difficult at all to get film from Freestyle Photo, or B&H, Adorama or any other company online which sells 120 film. I'm sure there's somewhere near you which will allow you to send the film for development.

Re: Before you buy a Soviet Camera

#55

Post by UncleSlacky »

My wife had a Zenit 12 (one of the UK market's stripped down & recalibrated models) back in the late 80s - which was a great camera, but unfortunately mold developed inside it in an unreachable area (as I recall). We were living in a damp environment, it wasn't the camera's fault.

Re: Before you buy a Soviet Camera

#56

Post by b06tmm »

raducu wrote: post #38
gambiting wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean..........urgh. It's an unbelivably convoluted topic and I feel like just dismissing it as "stolen by KGB from the West" is simply unfair. Yes, a lot of designs were simply copied from western equivalents. But also a lot of designs weren't, or were actually improvements over western designs in some crucial ways(washing machines being overbuilt because repairs were unlikely, so certain components were upgraded t…

A lot more designs than were stolen by the west from the west or non-existant designs stolen from the east by the west. The parent comentator has a valid point, the East usually copied good designs from the West. Which they could improve.

I had a teacher in the early '90s that said the Japanese were the best at reinventing things. They would take something, study it, and remake them better.

Re: Before you buy a Soviet Camera

#57

Post by Symbiote »

kevinstubbs wrote: post #50
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "But when the development started things often went wrong. Frontend, backend, dev-ops and other teams, had to crank out hundreds of thousands of Jira tickets, and their quantity, not quality, were the only thing that counted. To meet a quota, teams could substitute senior devs for more juniors, skip testing steps to speed up agile velocity – the list goes on.”

It's a comical comparison, but do any companies actually measure progress like this without even looking at the end result? Presumably if velocity stays high but everything is broken, somebody will say something (and hopefully not just continue with the broken process that produced the problem).

Judging by the results, anything outsourced by a European government (at any level) to one of the large, useless companies like Accenture, IBM, Capgemini, etc.

Re: Before you buy a Soviet Camera

#58

Post by Daho0n »

overcastsky wrote: post #39
AcerbicZero wrote: post #10

I judge Soviet quality off of the 20 or so Mosins I’ve shot. Sounds very similar to their cameras, but at least the rifles are more fun.

As a former military man myself, I found that Soviet rifles (AK pattern) and even the RPK were far more robust and trustworthy than the fragile Swiss-watch approach of the American M-16A2/M4/M249 series of rifles. Many people preferred them, even some of the junior officers who carried them around, but for them, it more of a badge of office (look at me) since they were armed with handguns as well.

Just add some dirt to those M-16A2/M4/M249 and suddenly the AK/RPK is a lot more fun. Especially if your life depends on it.

Re: Before you buy a Soviet Camera

#59

Post by alistairSH »

gambiting wrote: post #27
rvba wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Designs were sound since they were stolen by KGB from the West.

I mean..........urgh. It's an unbelivably convoluted topic and I feel like just dismissing it as "stolen by KGB from the West" is simply unfair. Yes, a lot of designs were simply copied from western equivalents. But also a lot of designs weren't, or were actually improvements over western designs in some crucial ways(washing machines being overbuilt because repairs were unlikely, so certain components were upgraded t…

I mean..........urgh. It's an unbelivably convoluted topic and I feel like just dismissing it as "stolen by KGB from the West" is simply unfair.

Yep. The article even mentions that initial designs for some of these cameras were taken as war reparations in the aftermath of WWII. I suppose Leica might see that as theft, but it was hardly KGB espionage.

Re: Before you buy a Soviet Camera

#60

Post by notdang »

skratlo wrote: post #32

> compete with the best of the West > Soviet cameras appealed to a huge swathe of photographers with a limited budget Whoever wrote this has zero respect. Some wannabe west superior looser. It's too bad, it could have been a nice article, but these remarks turned it into utter garbage.

I agree with the article, I was one of those photographers with a limited budget. The Zenit-E was prohibitively expensive for me, it was like a 3/4 of a monthly salary at that time. Where the article is not accurate?
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