goldengod

Have you ever considered being a private detective and gone “nah, the equipment just doesn’t make me look creepy enough or stand out enough”? Well, here comes Zenit Cameras to the rescue with their FS-122 Photosniper. Yes, that is an actual picture of it to the left.

I spotted this one skimming through Issue 34 of Vapors Magazine at work. The Photosniper was apparently used by the Russian KGB in the 50s and 60s to take pictures of American officials in and around their embassies. The look of it, while strange, makes perfect logical sense if you don’t mind looking like a very conspicuous and simpleminded assassin.

Rather than train all your soldiers the proper methods of holding a camera and taking photos, just mount the camera on a rifle stock. Put the target in the center and pull the trigger, you’ve just snapped your first photo of Justin Timberlake exiting a Russian whorehouse.

The lenses used are an MC Tair-3S 300mm f/4.5 and an MC Helios-44M-6 58mm f/2. It has a number of disadvantages to current cameras inasmuch as it has a top shutter speed of 1/500s and only does manual focus. However, if you want a great conversation piece to hang on the walls of your creepy, unwashed studio or film noir detective’s office, the KGB Photosniper can’t be beat.

Interestingly enough, you can still buy them for $205USD at the link above and pimall has also written a short article on it.

See any other strange cameras or camera guns lurking around on the net? Let me know about it, lest I collapse in some kind of paroxysm unexplained by science.