MOSKVA, a swear word to you, or are you a fan?

Hi everyone, so this group has reached 70 members, but there seems to be very little activity. So I'll throw this into the arena, Who out there likes Moskva cameras? Personally I have recently bought two of them, and I think they are great fun to use, and take really nice photos, but I have seen in other web articles that many people have the opinion that one should steer well clear of them So, who else in this group has one, what are your experiences with them, and what goes wrong with them I know a lot of Ikonta fans will be throwing up at the very thought of a Moskva, but let's face it, the soviets nicked (sorry, war reparations) the original plans and tooling for them, and the coated lenses were one of many improvements made by them So come on, what do you own, and what do you think????

I have a MOCKBA 5, and are tooling up to put it to good use, after som TLC.
Mine is a bit worn, but I guess people had other things on their mind in the 90's than taking good care of their picture taking machines.
I have a hunch many of them where put to semi-professional use in USSR too, since the big negative allowed for some less-than-perfect darkrooms around in the empire.....

I also had the pleasure of working with a MOCKBA 4, which was a dandy, in a travelling camera project limited to only 8 particapitants. Nice and sturdy camera, that no doubt was a fine picturet aking tool when it was new.

I rate the MosKva's alongside of most german folders, save for a couple top brands, Zeiss was mentioned, Adox stand to be mentioned and Franka too. I have heard reports that users rate the optics on their Moskva as better than run-of-the-mill Zeiss nettars with their 4,5 lenses, but cannot verify that.

EP

So glad to know I'm not the only one that likes Moskva folders So come on other members, have you got one?, ever had one? or ever used one? I'm particularly interested in anyone who owns or has used a Moskva 3, as these seem very rare, and for whatever reason use plates rather than roll film

Plates? You mean sheet film? Or did the russians actually launch a camera so late in history, dedicated to glass plates? (haven't seen onee either)
If that was the case I'm impressed over the russian total unpredictability!

According to camerapedia and the very few other articles I've managed to fund all state that the Moskva 3 is a 6x9 plate camera, hence my curiosity about them, I know the odd one I've seen on e-bay fetch vast amounts of money

I think the Moskva 3 used sheet film, which was also known as planfilm and could be confused?

I have 6 6x9 sheet film holders here in front of me on the desk................

Maybe this discussion is too old to reply to, but there aren't many people I can talk about Mockvas with.

I really like mine, if "like" means feeling self-satisfied I got it to work after wrestling it to the ground and making it light-tight.

The lens is very sharp, especially on the far side of f8, and the negatives are terrifically huge for a 35mm man like myself. The film transport is a bit of a challenge since I covered up most of the small red window on the back with black tape to prevent light leaking in.

I also disassembled the rear cover/pressure plate assembly, enlarging the sloppily-manufactured dark slide with black duct tape so it covered the film-number window.

It's not the most graceful machine to use, either, but I manage. I usually mount it on a tripod since I'm using the darkest red filter most of the time. The tripod socket on the body is pretty flimsy, so I use the one on the leather case instead.

Re-reading my review might sound like complaining, but no, I really like the thing!

Never too late to talk about Moskva! Which model is yours? Do you shoot black and white or colour? Let's face it, most of us could never afford a super Ikonta, but in reality I can't see a lot of difference in the negative or print quality! So stick with the Moskva, the results can be rather good!

Only black and white, I've been sticking to Fuji Neopan Acros, which is the cheapest major brand I can find. My goal is to do waaaay long exposures of city scenes, like the first French photographers did back in 1850. They had to do 45 minute exposures (!) because the plates were so slow, but I think I'll be satisfied with 10 secs. That means I'll be shooting either late in the day or very early, piling on the filters and developing for the slowest filmspeeds I can. Why? I dunno. To make the people go away, I guess...

I'd love to see the results when you've done them!

Received a Moskva 5 from the Ukraine today and first impressions are good. It smells of oil so may have been serviced or just needed a little oil to make it work. Everything seems to be fine, shutter works well at all speed although speed ring feels a little stiff, checked rangefinder and seems accurate. Folds out a little sluggishly to start but locks into place quite firmly with no slop anywhere. Takes a little time to get to know it but after running a roll of film through it and inspected the negatives then seems no evidence of light leaks with really sharp images over full frame. Will be printing negs over week end but cannot foresee any problems.

I ordered the camera and then read on the web of all the problems some people get with them. Accordingly thought I may have made a mistake but after examining the camera I am quite satisfied at the moment.

Regards,
John

Hi John, you've had your Moskva for nearly 5 months now, how are you getting on with it?

Hi, I'll outline my views:-

1. Find it impossible to handhold without having OOF shots, at any shutter speed. A lot of people claim to hand hold a 6 x 9 down to maybe 1/30 or even 1/15 sec. but this is not for me. Hence solid tripod for all shots and quite sharp images result but I had to refine my shooting technique to accomodate this and use a cable release(air type). Results are passable with aperture wide open, depending on type of subject, although soft towards film edges. Excellent sharpness produced by lens especially between f8 and f16 and really nice tonality with across in pyrocat hd. Surprised me in fact because I use a CC De Vere enlarger with fixed grade paper and a really old Wray 4 and 1/4 inch enlarging lens.
No perceptable difference when using the 6 x 6 format and Nikkor 80mm enlarging lens (6 elements). So delighted with that.

2. Still a focus issue but had to get used to the shallow depth of field with the 105 mm lens. This can be a little as an inch or two, or less, at closest focus on either side of optimal plane. This, of course, can be used to advantage but again required special care to begin with. BTW depth of field tables are a little optimistic and best to establish one's own values.

3. Rangefinder is not the best feature but quite useable and on this camera pretty accurate.

4. Cleared the slow unfold problem with a little fine grease applied to strut joints. No problems with lens/film plane alignment and I wind on the film before taking a shot as a precaution against sucking the film from the packing plate.(Although I am not sure that this is an issue.)

5. Had a problem with light leaking in through red rear windows in strong sunlight, despite sliding cover, but cured it by taping them over. Established the number of turns of film advance knob to No. 1 and each exposure thereafter. A little fiddly but once I got used to it no problems. I only use 6 x 9 after finding that the 6 x 6 mask inevitably produces scratches across the negatives despite my efforts to prevent this.

So, cumbersome and slow to use until you get accustomed to it but in my opinion well worth the effort and I now enjoy the whole process of using it.
I can't afford a 6 x 9 film scanner and print reproduction on my cheap scanner is poor. So I am working on a method of mounting the large negs on a light box and photographing them using a digital camera. Struggling to match the image in Photoshop with the print yet but making progress. When I have some images to post I will upload them for comment.
Thank you for the interest.
Best wishes,
John

Glad to hear you're using your Moskva, a lot of people buy one, play with it once, then use it as an ornament The problem you are having with the 6x6 mask is not uncommon, I have had that problem, and also with the 6x4.5 mask on a couple of lubitel tlrcameras (even though the mask in those is made of plastic), but after all, you don't buy a 6x9 camera to take 6x6 photos I assume your enlarger can handle 6x9 negs, so why not make some prints, then scan them? seems a much better option than messing with light boxes and di###al camers, and much cheaper than a 6x9 negative scanner. Another thing I often do is make contact prints 6x9, then scan those, you would be surprised how good the results are Look forward to seeing some pictures upladed, keep playing, and enjoy

I, too, had problems with too much light getting through the red windows - it seems to be the main issue with these beasts but they were probably designed for slower films and B&W rather than colour. I've now discovered that the pressure plate can easily be removed so I am going to see if some rings of black velvet will improve matters without obscuring the film number. Overall, though, it is a very nice camera apart from that one issue.

Got two of these from the Ukraine and the first thing I did was put them in a bright window for a week to remove the aroma(worked great). As squinty as the rangefinder window is, they both produce sharp images(a priority of mine). One had a light leak that was a bit of a bitch to find.Finally I put a quartz halogen headlight bulb inside it (in a darkened room) and lo and behold I was finally able to see the teeny pinhole,I light smear of black silicone seal and all is fine.Must say of all the little quirks these cameras have,I still keep pressing the folder release button to take pictures.
Regards Peter
ps;I don't see any posted images?

Time to take a walk with mine.



This was from last summer. My last roll of Neopan 400 too.

A few scans from prints made using the Moscva5. Please excuse poor scans, am working on this.