A rare modified “Space Leningrad” FAS-1 camera built for the Soviet Soyuz programme is one of several rare Soviet cameras going on sale at the Leitz Photographica Auction in Vienna, Austria this weekend (25 November).
The camera is a heavily modified version of the GOMZ Leningrad rangefinder, with outside controls for use with cosmonaut gloves on, and several other refinements for use in space.
The camera comes complete with its original wooden box.
Leitz Photographica said: “The offered camera is an early version of the FAS-1. This highly specialized camera was developed in the 1960s as a part of the Soyuz-3 program, to document the moon’s surface. The construction is a heavily modified Leningrad, featuring a clockwork motor drive without a viewfinder. Every component of this camera is crafted to the highest quality standards. It has a shutter speed of 1/140 and a Bulb mode. The design of the negative window is unique and seems to have been shaped to capture a round object, such as the Moon.
“All the components are robustly constructed, suitable for use with gloves. It offers both mechanical and electric release options, either direct or remote. It connects to the onboard electronics through a special 19-pole plug.
“The diaphragm is controlled by a substantial lever located on the left side of the lens, offering three positions: down (fully illuminated moon at f/11), level (half-illuminated moon at f/5.6), and up (light at the moon’s terminator at f/2.8). You can find a schematic explanation on a plate located on the hinged camera back.
“This camera is extremely rare, with very few known to exist. We auctioned two later Version 2 models in our 22nd and 29th auctions, both in grey versions. The camera is in near-perfect, almost new, working condition, and it includes the original wooden box with the camera’s name and serial number.”
The FAS-1 has a starting price of €30,000 and is expected to fetch between €60,000 and €70,000.
It is joined in the sale by another very rare camera, an FT-3 panoramic camera prototype.
The camera was an improved version of the FT-2 panoramic camera made by KMZ of Moscow in 1951, but the project was scrapped after only around 100 were made because the cameras were too expensive to produce.
The FT-3 is estimated to fetch between €20,000 and 24,000.
Another rare Soviet lot is a grey-painted GOMZ Sport camera, with a prototype 52/2.5 lens made by GOI (Gosudarstvennyi opticheskii institute or State Optical Institute). The camera is expected for fetch between €10,000 and €12,000.
A wartime FS-2 Fotosniper outfit made using a FED Leica copy modified by KMZ in Moscow is also part of the sale. The camera is believed to date from 1943 and comes complete with a Tair-3 300/4.5 telephoto lens.
Other items include a lens built for the advanced Kometa rangefinder camera built by KMZ which never made it into series production.
As previously reported on Kosmo Foto, the sale this weekend also includes a pair of Leica MP cameras used by Hollywood actor Yul Brynner.
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
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