Trigger grip on a famous camera

[hsart]

Not that this is immediately relevant, but some special op friends thought this was very cool. A friend was a Soviet war photojournalist during WW2 and took what became the most famous photo of that era from the Russian side - the Raising of the Soviet Flag over the Reichstag in Berlin 1945. It was the Russian's "Iwo Jima flag" version. His Leica camera had a trigger grip which enabled him to shoot pics one handed while he held a Tokarev in his other hand. This camera sits on my bookshelf - a great gift from an amazing guy. btw, he was shot in the chest when he was a one year old in the Ukraine during the Russian Revolution. Hope these pics upload okay.

[Ol'coot]

Very cool camera and a wonderful story. I would cherish such a gift with such amazing history from a special friend.

[INDYFAN]

As a photo-buff and equipment-junkie for over fifty years, I have only one thing to say about that beat-up ancient camera you have pictured ---WOW!!!!!!!!
With the story and the provenence you have on the camera I think it might be very valuable. Get as much of the story verified and documented as you can, and be prepared for the Ruskies to demand their camera back!
It is quite a piece of photographic war history. Chances are that the camera is or could be operational. I used to have a Lieca IIIg with collapsible 3.5 lens which took the phenomonally sharpest frames of anything I've ever owned (and that includes the 16 MP digital I'm using now!) Damn, I wish I had that camera back.

[hsart]

As a photo-buff and equipment-junkie for over fifty years, I have only one thing to say about that beat-up ancient camera you have pictured ---WOW!!!!!!!!
With the story and the provenence you have on the camera I think it might be very valuable. Get as much of the story verified and documented as you can, and be prepared for the Ruskies to demand their camera back!
It is quite a piece of photographic war history. Chances are that the camera is or could be operational. I used to have a Lieca IIIg with collapsible 3.5 lens which took the phenomonally sharpest frames of anything I've ever owned (and that includes the 16 MP digital I'm using now!) Damn, I wish I had that camera back.
I agree ... it does have WOW factor. I worked in Moscow for five years in the early 90s and met the photographer. We drank 'vodka' or something called that and he reminisced about the bad old days of Stalin and the war. He loved Bill Clinton though and always had a new joke for me when I visited. The camera is operational - old Leicas never die - and he entrusted me with his photo archive before he passed away in '97. CNN did a 12 minute documentary on his amazing life and also on my "discovery" of this old pensioner living in poverty in an industrial area of Moscow... so my provenance is perfected. I lent the camera to a few museum exhibitions in the last ten years, so this is a kind of open and notorious possession that should defend me from any Russian nationalistic demands.