ЛОМО Ленинград Год 1965
After several months, my local repair shop gave up to repair my first exemplary of Leningrad camera. I got that GOMZ Leningrad for less than the price of the lens (50€) a year ago (February 24, 2024, flic.kr/s/aHBqjBftyP) at the monthly collector meeting in Saint-Bonnet-de-Mure, near Lyon, France. I looked then again for a working one.
Leningrad’s are fascinating Russian range-finder 35mm camera’s produced in Leningrad (USSR) / Saint-Petersburg, from 1956 to 1968 at about 76.000 units. It is not really a rare camera but appears only from time-to-time in the classical collector’s networks.
The Leningrad camera project was developed by GOMZ company (ГОМЗ, Государственный оптико-механический завод, Ленинград = Gosularstvennyi Optiko-Mekhanicheskii Zavod =State Optical-Mechanical Factory), Leningrad, USSR. The Leningrad ’s were constructed to a very high degree of precision and likely the most advanced rangefinder ever made at that time in Russia. At the 1958 World Exposition in Brussels, the Leningrad was awarded the "Grand Prix de Bruxelles”. Modified Leningrads were also used in the Soviet space program. In addition to a complex parallax-compensated multi-focal (for 3.5, 5, 8.5 and 13.5cm) collimated system, the camera has a built-in spring-powered mechanical motor for an automated film advance after each view taken. The Leningrad monts the 39mm Leica-type thread lenses, especially of the Jupiter series of lens derived of classical Carl Zeiss lenses designed for the Contax (Biogon 3.5cm and Sonnar’s 5, 8.5 and 13.5cm).
In 1965, GOMZ became LOMO ( ЛОМО, Ленинградское oптико-механическое oбъединение (Leningradskoïe Optiko-Mekhanitcheskoïe Obiedinienie) that is still existing, producing instrumental optical devices (www.lomo.ru).
On eBay, I focused on a LOMO Leningrad year 1965 in working condition but without the original film plate. I got the camera for 130€ including the leather bag and a standard lens Jupiter-8 1:2 f=5cm. The seller adapted cleanly a different film plate that looked to work, but my idea was to use the camera back of my faulty Leningrad. This film plate may a precision glass plate special designed for optimum film transport and optical planarity. I received my new Leningrad on January 31, 2025 in good condition.
Further little improvements and restorations swapping the rewind button and the memo disk of my first Leningrad exemplary to the working one.
February 6, 2025
69004 Lyon
France
ЛОМО Ленинград Год 1965
After several months, my local repair shop gave up to repair my first exemplary of Leningrad camera. I got that GOMZ Leningrad for less than the price of the lens (50€) a year ago (February 24, 2024, flic.kr/s/aHBqjBftyP) at the monthly collector meeting in Saint-Bonnet-de-Mure, near Lyon, France. I looked then again for a working one.
Leningrad’s are fascinating Russian range-finder 35mm camera’s produced in Leningrad (USSR) / Saint-Petersburg, from 1956 to 1968 at about 76.000 units. It is not really a rare camera but appears only from time-to-time in the classical collector’s networks.
The Leningrad camera project was developed by GOMZ company (ГОМЗ, Государственный оптико-механический завод, Ленинград = Gosularstvennyi Optiko-Mekhanicheskii Zavod =State Optical-Mechanical Factory), Leningrad, USSR. The Leningrad ’s were constructed to a very high degree of precision and likely the most advanced rangefinder ever made at that time in Russia. At the 1958 World Exposition in Brussels, the Leningrad was awarded the "Grand Prix de Bruxelles”. Modified Leningrads were also used in the Soviet space program. In addition to a complex parallax-compensated multi-focal (for 3.5, 5, 8.5 and 13.5cm) collimated system, the camera has a built-in spring-powered mechanical motor for an automated film advance after each view taken. The Leningrad monts the 39mm Leica-type thread lenses, especially of the Jupiter series of lens derived of classical Carl Zeiss lenses designed for the Contax (Biogon 3.5cm and Sonnar’s 5, 8.5 and 13.5cm).
In 1965, GOMZ became LOMO ( ЛОМО, Ленинградское oптико-механическое oбъединение (Leningradskoïe Optiko-Mekhanitcheskoïe Obiedinienie) that is still existing, producing instrumental optical devices (www.lomo.ru).
On eBay, I focused on a LOMO Leningrad year 1965 in working condition but without the original film plate. I got the camera for 130€ including the leather bag and a standard lens Jupiter-8 1:2 f=5cm. The seller adapted cleanly a different film plate that looked to work, but my idea was to use the camera back of my faulty Leningrad. This film plate may a precision glass plate special designed for optimum film transport and optical planarity. I received my new Leningrad on January 31, 2025 in good condition.
Further little improvements and restorations swapping the rewind button and the memo disk of my first Leningrad exemplary to the working one.
February 6, 2025
69004 Lyon
France