Subj : Re: Recent finds?
To   : paulie420
From : poindexter FORTRAN
Date : Thu Feb 03 2022 08:27:00

-=> paulie420 wrote to aLPHA <=-

 pa> While this isn't retro COMPUTING, I collect some Russian antiques.
 pa> Lighters, a couple neat watches, some WWII era bomb fuzes (I have a
 pa> large fuze collection... very cool.) and a few phones - I love seeing
 pa> how DIFFERENT their tech was that ours, and most of it is built really
 pa> well. Very industrial, as you say, too.

I'm a fan of soviet-era 35mm cameras. As you'd mentioned, their tech is 
different, simple, foolproof, and genius in many ways.

I shot hundreds of rolls of film through a LOMO LC-A, a little compact 
camera that, like many Soviet era cameras, was a copy of a Japanese camera 
that itself was a copy of another.

They put an amazing little triplet lens on it, and in keeping with the 
"simple yet genius" description, had an amazing shutter. A spring opened the 
shutter, and a solar cell charged a capacitor. When the capacitor charged, 
it powered an electromagnet which closed the shutter. That meant you could 
do 2 minute exposures without draining the battery. In order to adjust for 
different film speeds/sensitivities, a rotating disk with different sized 
holes was fitted over the solar cell. Slower speed film meant a smaller 
hole, and a longer exposure.

Other cameras were blatant copies of other cameras - Zorki cameras, for 
example, were made in a Contax factory that was taken over in WWII and moved 
to the Soviet Union.


.... Emphasize the flaws
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