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1. Anime Wong (elliptica@poa.st)'s status on Tuesday, 26-Dec-2023 11:38:30 JST Anime Wong
   I just learned Ukraine mass produces fake German WWII cameras.
   
   The story is that a Germany company (Leica) during the 30's designs a really popular range-finder camera. After WWII (I think) the Soviet union ends up with the facilities of that company. The company moved to West Germany and started over, and the USSR mass produced copies of their cameras, since they had all the machines needed to do it, but they weren't as good as the originals. Lots of other companies got in on this too, including big names like Nikon and Canon. I think the company might have restructured itself after WWII, and so there was no one to complain about clones, or no way to enforce it.
   
   A lot of these cameras ended up on Ebay, as "cheap Leica's", for people who wanted a Leica experience without spending hundreds of dollars for a 90+ year old camera, and the most common were the USSR Zorki clones.
   
   Now there is someone in Ukraine, who is rebranding them as Leica cameras, along with insignia's from the time. They are honest that they are Zorki's, but the strange thing is they don't even look like the cameras they are supposed to be mimicking.
   
   For instance, the first photos are of a Zorki clone of a Luftwaffe Lecia, and the second are of a real Luftwaffe Leica.
   
   What I find really strange (or maybe funny) is that all of these altered cameras come out of Ukraine.