Cool Old Cameras: The Moskva 5

Learn a little bit about a cool Russian folding rangefinder camera from the 1950's.

Copyright Andy Scheier 2020

Music from the YouTube Audio Library

[Haffschlappe]

Please try the wonderful german Beier Precisa IIA with fantastic coated Meyer Görlitz 3.5 75 trioplan lens!

[kerekes]

All Super Ikonta cameras had coupled rangefinders. The Moskva 2 was an exact copy of the Super Ikonta 531, that is the reason why it has the same unique rangefinder mechanism. It was then further improved, so it has a more compact viewfinder and adjustable image format.

[Schlipperschlopper]

Please try german 1938 prewar BALDA Super Pontura 6x9 / 6x6 coupled rangefinder supercamera. It was the most expensive and most complex and most modern folder Germans made before WW2. The Certo Super Sport Dolly 1938 (also a coupled rangefinder 6x6) also is a great camera, this camera was frequently used by German authorities (Henschel tank engineers on the eastern front / wartime journalists) due to its compactness and great lens quality.

[tobysummers]

Recently picked up one of these! Really excited to use it.

[docustory]

Very interesting presentation! Continue in the same spirit !!! I also collect old cameras and love it when people talk about their things with heart.

[SilntObsvr]

I'm on my second Moskva-5; the one I have now was made the same year I was -- 1959. Mine is clean, dent-free, fully functional, has the format mask, and has been reskinned in white leather, though the handle strap is missing (I'll make a new one someday).

The only thing I don't love about 6x9 is getting only eight frames on a roll -- but the thing I love most is the size of the negative; *six times* the negative area of 35mm, big enough to make 2x3 inch contact prints (and nothing is as sharp as a contact print). I've got better cameras, and much more versatile cameras, but my 6x9 folders (this one, a slightly older Wirgin Auta, and a Voigtlander Rollfilmkamera from *1927*) are both the biggest bang for the buck, and the most negative area I can carry in a (large) pocket.

As noted in another comment, Super Ikontas are couple RF, and some of the smaller/later ones (like my Super Ikonta B 532/16) have the viewfinder and rangefinder combined, but I don't know of any 6x9 folder that has that; the big upgrade between the Moskva-4 (which was very much like the Moskva-2) and the Moskva-5 was the new top plate with the viewfinder under cover (also housing the double exposure lock).

[moreartsproduction]

Hay how to get the film camera for mockba ? Can you recommend place official link?

[neilpiper]

I have the Moskva 4 with a 110mm f4. 5 Industar lens made in 1956 according to the first two numbers of the serial number on the lens.
It is a very close copy of the Zeiss Super Ikonta different to the 5 you have there.
I love the look of it, and it still works perfectly. The main difference is the that 5 has a delayed action lever on the lens.
Your Moskva 5 was made in 1959 by the way.

[Haffschlappe]

This camera was Enhanced by Zeiss employees from Dresden during Stalin and Chrustchov era for Kmz company

[titus]

What do you think about the lens? Is it sharp enough for large prints?

[usop]

Really strange seeing modern images (Like that bike) being captured on a camera this old. It is as if the camera traveled to the future to see this new kind of world. If that camera were to be sentient, I wonder what the camera would feel.

[snuff]

Very professional, keep it up bro.

Edit: IM IN THIS VIDEO!

[gsantar]

hey man. you got a big fungus in the middle of the lens, open it and wash it in Zeiss liquid -urgent. nice camera I've got it and love it.