Geodeziya
Geodeziya Zavod (Russian: Геодезия) was a Soviet camera-maker in Moscow, which made one of the the early Soviet Leica-copies, the FAG (ФАГ),[1] in 1934-5. This was produced only in demonstration numbers before being discontinued in favour of the FED. Another such also-ran was the VOOMP Pioneer. Oscar Fricke believes the name suggests that Geodeziya made surveying equipment before being commissioned to make a camera.[2] The name FAG was apparently suggested by readers of Sovietskoye Foto,[2] and may be in tribute to somebody, like 'FED', but it is not now known to whom (or perhaps simply standing for Fotoapparat Geodeziya). It is a straightforward Leica-II copy, with a fixed lens (the example linked below has been converted so that the lens is interchangeable, according to the auctioneer).
Notes
- ↑ FAG serial no. 49 (stamped in various places), in nickel-plate finish with black vulcanite, and with VOOMP/Geodeziya 50mm f/3.5 collapsible lens, offered for sale but unsold, at the 39th Leitz Photographica Auction, on 20 November 2021.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Fricke, Oscar: The Dzerzhinksy Commune: Birth of the Soviet 35mm Camera Industry, History of Photography, Vol. 3, No. 2 April 1979. Reproduced at Fedka.com
