An "Evil" FSU Camera

shadowfox

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This guy:

4730308723_ca0c14eb42.jpg


is this guy:

4172320516_2938eed765.jpg


... minus rangefinder assembly, plus prism and a mirror box.

Is it any good? two part series in my photo-journal.
Part I
Part II.
 
In spite of both have M39 thread the lenses from the rangefinder will not fit this SLR. Moreover it's quite hard to find optics for this Zenit.
So, I'm afraid, the "formula" is not right
 
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In spite of both have M39 thread the lenses from the rangefinder will not fit this SLR. Moreover it's quite hard to find optics for this Zenit.

Well it's not THAT hard unless you want something fancy. You need to spend some time looking. The standard lenses (50/3.5 Industar and 58/2 Helios-44) are easy to find for like $25 with cameras still attached to them. Regarding the Mir-1 37mm wideangle, I see seven currently on eBay and I've seen plenty on flea markets.

The most interesting lens for the old Zenits is probably the 85/1.5 Helios-40 portrait lens:

U4985I1255184331.SEQ.0.jpg


In the "old" version, which is M39 with a M42 step-up ring, it will fit the Zenit-3M nicely, if a bit on the top-heavy side. I think I paid $60 for mine, with leather case, filters and all.
 
In FSU countries M39 lenses for SLR are still quite common. The other day I bought on the flea market the J-11 (135mm f4.0), paid 10$. There was also Zenit 3, but quite poor shape, so I passed...
 
Well it's not THAT hard unless you want something fancy. You need to spend some time looking. The standard lenses (50/3.5 Industar and 58/2 Helios-44) are easy to find for like $25 with cameras still attached to them. Regarding the Mir-1 37mm wideangle, I see seven currently on eBay and I've seen plenty on flea markets.

The most interesting lens for the old Zenits is probably the 85/1.5 Helios-40 portrait lens:

In the "old" version, which is M39 with a M42 step-up ring, it will fit the Zenit-3M nicely, if a bit on the top-heavy side. I think I paid $60 for mine, with leather case, filters and all.


I am not going to argue, probably you know better.
But this is the list of lenses taken from official Zenit page Proof
1 Mir-1 37mm f2,8
2 Helios-44 58 mm f2
3 Helios-40 85m f1.5
4 Jupiter-9 85mm f2
5 Industar-24m 110mm f3,5
6 Tair-11 133mm f2,8
7 Jupiter-11 133mm f4
8 Jupiter-6 100mm f2,8
9 Telemar-22 200mm f5,6
10 Tair-3 300mm f4,5
11 МТО-500 500mm f8
12 МТО-1000 1000mm f10

I can say that I've hardly seen one third of the list. I've NEVER seen Jupiters 9 and 6 for Z3M for example.
As for Helios-40 I have one and I use it on Canon body that is much more comfortable.

Anyway as far as I understand the topic was dealing with usage M39 for RF on a Zenit 3m and probably vice versa ...
 
I can say that I've hardly seen one third of the list. I've NEVER seen Jupiters 9 and 6 for Z3M for example.

Nor have I. There are probably other, even odder lenses out there for the collectors to hunt down.

As for Helios-40 I have one and I use it on Canon body that is much more comfortable.

Definitely! An instant-return mirror, a light meter and a better viewfinder.

Anyway as far as I understand the topic was dealing with usage M39 for RF on a Zenit 3m and probably vice versa ...

Where did you see that? People ask this question every now and then (and are almost always disappointed about the answer), but this time I think the OP just wanted to present the Zenit-3M as the "SLR cousin" of the Zorki 6. He didn't really talk about interchanging lenses as far as I understand it.
 
Where did you see that? People ask this question every now and then (and are almost always disappointed about the answer), but this time I think the OP just wanted to present the Zenit-3M as the "SLR cousin" of the Zorki 6. He didn't really talk about interchanging lenses as far as I understand it.

I saw it from the formula given.
 
You mean the "minus rangefinder assembly plus mirror box" thing?

I've said all I wanted to say.
If I've misunderstood the idea, the topic starter will just ignore my posts.

Arvay, the above is not a "formula" that suggests using one camera's lens on the other (although you can use L39 lens as a macro lens on the Zenit 3M :) ).

I was merely stating what I thought is quite interesting from the perspective of having both cameras.
 
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