Totchka
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The KGB S-252 Totchka (Russian: Точка; 'dot' or 'point') is a spy camera made by KMZ for the KGB in the 1960s. It is designed to be worn hidden behind a necktie: the image is reflected onto the film via an angled mirror behind the lens, allowing the camera to be flat. It makes 8x11mm images on Minox-size 9.5mm film in cassettes, advanced by a clockwork motor. The camera is superficially similar to a Minox Riga in its shape and dimensions, but is different in most respects; it is not a copy. The camera has a coated Industar 15mm f/3.5 lens with no focus or aperture control. There are two models:
- Early examples (1960) have shutter speeds 1/10-1/400 second, selected with a toothed wheel on the side of the camera.[1][2] The shutter is apparently triggered by two spring-loaded buttons on each side of the camera. There is a frame-counter in the front; a rotating dial seen in a window. A knurled thumb-wheel in the end of the camera presumably winds the clockwork motor.
- Later cameras (1965) have shutter speeds 1/5-1/500 second, and a more polished-looking engraved disc as speed selector.[3][4][5] The shutter release is a neater button, which is threaded externally to accept a Leica-type cable release. This model of the camera also has a tiny reverse-galilean viewfinder, right beside the lens (presumably not to be used when the spy is wearing the camera behind his tie). Some examples of this model still have the same frame-counter as the original camera,[5] but others have a new smaller one, with a tiny round window.[3][4]
Notes
- ↑ Totchka camera, early type, with film cassette and film cutter, in maker's wooden case, sold at the 21st Westlicht Photographica Auction, on 23 May 2012.
- ↑ Totchka camera, early type, with film cassettes, offered for sale but not sold, at the 36th Leitz Photographica Auction, on 13 June 2020.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Totchka camera, later type, with new, smaller frame-counter window, sold at the 27th Westlicht Photographica Auction, on 13 June 2015.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Totchka camera, later type, with new, smaller frame-counter window, sold at the 21st Westlicht auction.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Totchka camera, later type but with old-style large frame counter, also sold at the 21st Westlicht auction.
Links
- Totchka, first model, with cassette and film cutter in wooden case, and some notes on the camera, at U. Witte's Hamburg und Mehr (text in German)
