Huss
Veteran
In other news, Trabants are going to be reintroduced as a high end alternative to Mercedes Benz.
Zenit..... with ridiculously hefty price tags
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David Hughes
David Hughes
Hi,
Well, this is the internet and we have to be 110% accurate. Otherwise next week on ebay the early Zenits will be advertised as miniature Russian spy cameras and the price will have gone up...
Regards, David
David Hughes
David Hughes
Hi,
Sorry, I typed "a Pentax Spotmatic" and should have typed "The Pentax Spotmatic". Anyway, I was talking about the size of them in response to what was written about the size of the Zenit.
It's obvious to me because I can look up and see them in a display cabinet...
Regards, David
robertofollia
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Well, I saw the news both in petapixel and the russian forum (my russian is very bad so I needed help from mr. Translator).
My 1st SLR was a praktica. I had the possibility to get a Zenit (11 or 12 were available at that time) and I laughed at the tall shutter release button and the crude exposure counter.
My 2nd Slr in 1991 was a new BX20 (in Spain we got stuff much later than other countries, so GDR prakticas were being sold in 1991, when the factory already belonged to Schneider).
Praktica soldiered on until 2001 as a camera manufacturer, and zenit continued until 2005. They still make lenses.
Fast forward to 2016. Contax user since 1994 (S2) which breaks down. Hahaaa no parts available, no one who dares to look at it (meter dead, had been fighting with out of focus images for 10 years at full aperture. After 100s of euros found it was a flat bayonet spring which fixed myself). Now meter dead, and looking for replacement boards all over the world.
Guess what? Found a sorry Zenit 122 from a school which put and end to film shooting. 25 euros with lens. Had shot countless rolls as shutter release was sooo soft and aperture spring was very weak. But worked! HAd a little fungus which I removed, and one of the LEDs was burnt out
Took it apart, threw away rotten foam, refoamed it, renewed the 3 leds soldering and sanding new ones, calibrated exposure meter with my lunasix and loaded one expired roll "just for test". Lively sharp images. Speeds were spot on as I tried from 1/30 to 1/500 on the same subject and everything was uniformly lit. So I can say the Zenit grew on me (who could have told me that 20 years ago?).
So guess what? My S2 is being confined as shelf queen until repaired, and the Zenit put into use (and bought several more, even some 3Ms and a very nice cute C -a Leica with pentaprism, which was what it was).
Don't know if Rostec will succeed, and wish them plenty of luck
Film SLRs are no more (only the F6). Cosina quit camera manufacturing (so the Cosina clones as the Vivitar and FM10 might go bust as well). Only Phenix remains active, in chine, churning out dozens of Yashica FX3 clones (the DN60-DN66 being nikon mount, the latter one with 1/4000 mechanical shutter), the DC303 (PK mount, 1/2000 top speed).
Don't know if Rostec might get hold of the Cosina manufacturing facilities, or license, or what, or they might rebrand the Phenix products, or restart production of classic Zorki rangefinders or Zenit SLRs.
I visited the Zenit museum in Krasnogorsk in december and the devices they made (not for sal to the public) were impressive. Zenit is celebrating its 100th anniversary next year, so they might come up with something new.
But I'm pretty sure that, if they come up with a nice film mechanical camera, I will be buying it.
Anybody brave enough to market a new film product deserves support
Best regards
My 1st SLR was a praktica. I had the possibility to get a Zenit (11 or 12 were available at that time) and I laughed at the tall shutter release button and the crude exposure counter.
My 2nd Slr in 1991 was a new BX20 (in Spain we got stuff much later than other countries, so GDR prakticas were being sold in 1991, when the factory already belonged to Schneider).
Praktica soldiered on until 2001 as a camera manufacturer, and zenit continued until 2005. They still make lenses.
Fast forward to 2016. Contax user since 1994 (S2) which breaks down. Hahaaa no parts available, no one who dares to look at it (meter dead, had been fighting with out of focus images for 10 years at full aperture. After 100s of euros found it was a flat bayonet spring which fixed myself). Now meter dead, and looking for replacement boards all over the world.
Guess what? Found a sorry Zenit 122 from a school which put and end to film shooting. 25 euros with lens. Had shot countless rolls as shutter release was sooo soft and aperture spring was very weak. But worked! HAd a little fungus which I removed, and one of the LEDs was burnt out
Took it apart, threw away rotten foam, refoamed it, renewed the 3 leds soldering and sanding new ones, calibrated exposure meter with my lunasix and loaded one expired roll "just for test". Lively sharp images. Speeds were spot on as I tried from 1/30 to 1/500 on the same subject and everything was uniformly lit. So I can say the Zenit grew on me (who could have told me that 20 years ago?).
So guess what? My S2 is being confined as shelf queen until repaired, and the Zenit put into use (and bought several more, even some 3Ms and a very nice cute C -a Leica with pentaprism, which was what it was).
Don't know if Rostec will succeed, and wish them plenty of luck
Film SLRs are no more (only the F6). Cosina quit camera manufacturing (so the Cosina clones as the Vivitar and FM10 might go bust as well). Only Phenix remains active, in chine, churning out dozens of Yashica FX3 clones (the DN60-DN66 being nikon mount, the latter one with 1/4000 mechanical shutter), the DC303 (PK mount, 1/2000 top speed).
Don't know if Rostec might get hold of the Cosina manufacturing facilities, or license, or what, or they might rebrand the Phenix products, or restart production of classic Zorki rangefinders or Zenit SLRs.
I visited the Zenit museum in Krasnogorsk in december and the devices they made (not for sal to the public) were impressive. Zenit is celebrating its 100th anniversary next year, so they might come up with something new.
But I'm pretty sure that, if they come up with a nice film mechanical camera, I will be buying it.
Anybody brave enough to market a new film product deserves support
Best regards
Wulfthari
Well-known
Interesting thread that I missed
Perhaps you aren't aware but in the 60s and the 70s Zenit made a lot of interesting cameras (some of them look like they were props for a sci-fi show) but they didn't get in production.
However the Zenit 19 was a good camera and successful, not as crude as the average Zenit.
The lenses were all top notch, nothing to say about that.
Regarding the "good cameras" in the Soviet Union, well they were others, Kiev for instance made sturdy Nikon F mounted cameras (from the 17 to the 20) that were much more similar to a Nikkormat or a Spotmatic than a Zenit, and Lomo was tasked to develop the camera to replace the Nikon F2, the Almaz project...that was an interesting failure.
That's a cool picture, I also have some cool pictures taken with Zenits, shall we open a thread? 😀
Perhaps you aren't aware but in the 60s and the 70s Zenit made a lot of interesting cameras (some of them look like they were props for a sci-fi show) but they didn't get in production.
However the Zenit 19 was a good camera and successful, not as crude as the average Zenit.
The lenses were all top notch, nothing to say about that.
Regarding the "good cameras" in the Soviet Union, well they were others, Kiev for instance made sturdy Nikon F mounted cameras (from the 17 to the 20) that were much more similar to a Nikkormat or a Spotmatic than a Zenit, and Lomo was tasked to develop the camera to replace the Nikon F2, the Almaz project...that was an interesting failure.
All I can say is, does this look like a photo made with a junk camera?
Zenit TTL
Helios 44-M 2/58
Notes Of Passing Through by P F McFarland, on Flickr
Granted, the meter doesn't work, but I can make do without.
PF
That's a cool picture, I also have some cool pictures taken with Zenits, shall we open a thread? 😀
asiafish
Established
The Lomo J3+ is an outstanding lens, far truer to the Zeiss original than the current ZM C Sonnar.
Wulfthari
Well-known
I lost that....I have a 1966 Jupiter 3 and it's an excellent lens, where can I find a review of the resurrected Jupiter around? A J3 in good conditions is an excellent lens:
I wish they had shortened the minimum focusing distance to 0.7mm.
You are correct, the Kristall is a tiny SLR, more or less like a MX but taller, basically a Zorki 6 without rangefinder and with a small pentaprism. It's hard to use as there is no focusing screen, no instant return mirror...but it's the SLR Leica should have made with the M3 but couldn't.
Then they made it bigger and bigger until the Zenit 19 that is probably the best of the line but also the biggest.
However, they already started with the lenses:
http://photorumors.com/2016/04/15/f...itar-50mm-f0-95-50mm-f1-2-85mm-f1-2-and-more/
I can believe they will come out with some camera. How good is hard to say.
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