(the front page of the original guarantee certificate)
Fotokor
Fotokor is a Soviet-made 9x12 cm plate-camera. It is an almost exact copy of ICA Ideal or Nagel Recomar (in fact all plate-"compacts" from same period resemble each other). Fotokor was made from 1930 to 1939. Production quantity was about one million. First models were equipped with German shutters but from 1932 onwards Fotokors had Soviet shutters (due to the lack of foreign currency). In fact GOMZ-shutter is a copy of German Vario (famous Soviet engineer UsPatOff again).
First Fotokors came to Finland as war booties during the Winter War (Soviet political officers were usually equipped with cameras for propaganda purposes). Nowadays Fotokors are easy to find on Estonian or Russian second-hand markets. My camera is from Tallinn.
Technical data: |
Fotokor 1 |
| Optics: | Ortagoz 135mm
f:4,5 (most common) Industar-2 135mm f:4,5 |
| Shutter: | Compur
1-1/200sec, B, T (submodel A, 1930-32) Vario 1/25-1/100sec, B, T (submodel B, 1930-32) GOMZ 1/25-1/100sec, B, D (submodel C, 1932-1939, most common) |
| Film: | 9x12cm glass plates in tin holders |
| Manufacturer: | GOMZ, Leningrad 1930-1939 |
,
VOOMP- and GOMZ-logos on the shutter. VOOMP was the Soviet Opto-Mechanical trust (just like the VEB Pentacon was in GDR). GOMZ was later known as LOMO.
The shutter speed range is quite modest but smallest aperture is fortunately f/36 (nice feature when using modern films). K means B and D is T. There is an older type aperture-range (4,5 -6,3 - 9 - 12,5 - 18 etc.)
Fotokor is originally a glass-plate camera but it is not difficult to adapt holders for sheet-film.
Not as flexible or luxorious as the Linhof Technika, but there are at least some modest movements in front plate.
Interesting stuff from thirties: a camera and a case, plate-holders, an instruction manual, a guarantee certificate and a depth-of-field scale booklet.
© pekka heikkilä 1999