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Zenit: The tasteful and stylish camera that "sounds like a kiss"

Hmmmm, can't say that I noticed that. I do know that one time, someone gave my young studio partner a pair of Zenits to use as props for a shoot. Even though they worked perfectly fine--fine relative to the fact they were Zenits--he tossed them in the skip (dumpster, for Americans) after the shoot..he hated shooting film.

I saw them in there and fished 'em out, and one day I was in a second-hand shop and the gentleman had a Rolleiflex T that he did not quite know the value of. So I went up and grabbed the Zenits. He liked old cameras, although he couldn't tell one from another--and he knocked 15 quid off the £80 he was asking for the Rolleiflex in exchange. That camera certainly *did* sound sweet as a kiss.

Somehow, I don't think a Zenit could ever match that, just IMHO.
 
Definitely sounds like a bear kissing a salmon he just fished out of a river.
 
Zenit is a curseword - recommend this to a beginner and you'll definitely ruin his fun. It's a product of Soviet engineering: a shitshow of very questionable and varying quality - if it works at all and isn't chewing up your film in daily operation.
Russians can't make shit. So they have to lie themselves to sleep about their imaginary industrial might.
 
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I have two Zenit-E. One I got in 1973 for Christmas when my older brother got an OM-1. I'm still crying about it....
 
No russophobia intended in my original post: I figure that the average Russian can do nothing about the current situation.

It may be propaganda, but enjoy the show for what it's worth. It seems that they've created a "Zenit Art Space" in the shadow of the Kremlin. In the video linked below, you can see it in a deserted GUM, along with a presentation by (Leica user) Igor Mukhin. No actual merchandise is shown, save for some souvenir booklets.

 
ic-racer said:
I have two Zenit-E. One I got in 1973 for Christmas when my older brother got an OM-1. I'm still crying about it....
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In 1973, I'd have regarded a Kodak Instamatic as a big gift. Any idea what Zenit E and OM1 were selling for in those days? I was scarcely aware of east-bloc cameras in the 1970s-80s, but vaguely recall even Canonet 28 seeming like a big-ticket item.
 
I’ve written about my Zenit on this forum before. I bought it new in I think 1969, because I was keen on photography, thought SLRs were the way to go, and this was the most I could afford. I did do a lot of photography with it, and the camera did take photos, but none of them were worth keeping to the present day. I guess I could say it was an educational chapter in my life.

The shutter was quiet but the mirror was not. The shutter speed dial was a terrible lift-and-turn design that relied on grub screws to maintain their grip on a central post. Those grub screws had to be re-tightened frequently with thread sealant, but could lose their hold at any time. Flash synch was unreliable. The viewfinder was dark and grainy. The Industar lens was OK but slow and fiddly. The aperture ring always felt as though it was about to come off. In fact all the components of the camera were pretty coarsely engineered. It was the Lada of the camera world.

Through lack of funds, I stuck with that camera until 1981, when I was only too glad to hurl it in a skip and buy an entry-level Nikon. (Another mistake, but that’s a different story.)
 
That reskinned Leica M240 as a Zenit was kinda cool. Of course they for some reason took a bunch of the functionality out of it.
Still, they made it look like a digital M5.
 
I just looked at the Zenit website. They have certainly come on a stride since my experience. This is not the Soviet era with an unmotivated workforce, and I’ve no doubt that with access to Chinese electronics, the Zenit company could do a fine job. I don’t understand why they feel the need to mimic an established western design, though.

Some years ago, when I was still a wildlife biologist, a Swedish company produced a really neat and novel VHF radio-tracking receiver. It had Bang & Olofsson aesthetics, user-friendly functionality, and worked perfectly. A Russian scientist I met at a conference in the 1980s showed me a receiver that - at least outwardly - was an exact copy. “Made in Russia”, he proclaimed proudly. I’ve no idea how well it functioned - it was his need to prove something that stayed with me. Clearly there is still that need.
 
4season said:
In 1973, I'd have regarded a Kodak Instamatic as a big gift. Any idea what Zenit E and OM1 were selling for in those days? I was scarcely aware of east-bloc cameras in the 1970s-80s, but vaguely recall even Canonet 28 seeming like a big-ticket item.
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This is especially sad because the local camera store had a display case full of nice used rangefinder cameras, but the slimy sales persons took advantage of my parents and sold them the new Zenit E for about $90. They were selling the rangefinders for about $35 to $60 each; I know because I went to the shop all the time to gaze in that display case of used cameras. This was right when everyone was pressured into getting rid of those old Nikon, Canon and Leica rangefinders and being sold on SLRs.

The OM-1 was purchased by my parents while on a Carribean cruise for my brother. From what I recall it was $180 with 1.8 lens, whereas they were selling for about $220 in the states.

BTW the Zenit was the replacement for my Instamatic!

This is the exact shop. Sadly, or gladly, it is no longer in existence.
 
Out of curiosity I looked up what a Zenit E or EM would have cost in Germany ca. 1975:




Kudos to whomever spends their time scanning and uploading these old ads. Apparently the price of a Zenit was about a tenth of the average income of 1,817 DM (or EUR 287,27 in todays money). Seems like appropriate pricing for what you get.

Looking up how average incomes increased throughout the seventies has kind of ruined my morning, though.
 
I bought my OM-1 +.1.8 50mm in 1974 for around Dfl 900 , which was just over DM 800 or about USD 300 at that time.
 
I’m surprised those 1970s prices were so high. My old Zenit could not have cost me more than £50 new in the late 60s, because I simply didn’t have that kind of money. £50 would have been the result of saving over multiple birthdays and Christmases. USSR imports to the UK were known to be quite a bargain (unless you expected them to work). Some kind of trade deal, I guess.

Presumably the collaboration with Leica has been halted by current sanctions? Likewise any prospect of it being resumed.
 
When I shifted to the English version of the linked website, I couldn't find anything on Zenit cameras. Is the information on Zenit cameras only for local consumption?
 
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I had to move studios two years ago during Covid as the landlords decided to double the rent. What bastards! Through a client I found a great place near Finsbury Park, North London. It was only when a friend, (who was building my new darkroom), chatted to the caretaker that I found out that the building was originally built as Zenit House, the UK base for TOE.
http://cameras.alfredklomp.com/toe/
And of course, my first camera was a Zenit E!
 

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They also had a shop in Holborn, which sold TOE products alongside soapstone carvings, textiles and other Soviet exports.
 

This sort of sums up my impression of Russian manufacturing today: "Russian" Moskvich 3 automobile on the left, Chinese JAC JS4 on the right. And it's a safe bet that the latter is filled with components and intellectual property not made in PRC, because that's the nature of globalization.



AFAIK, the last time Zenit had aspirations for a homegrown digital camera was in the 1990s or early aughties with the Z1 concept model.
 
I think were fine and dandy... that link to the zenit website in the products category has them making optical sights for "governmental purposes". So if the legendary Zenit view finder quality has stayed the same.... i bet russian tankers wish they were looking through a card board tube.
 
Oh, I understand you very well. I'll never get my hands on anything 'Made in russia', but I do use a Soviet Zenith11. After all, I lived most of my life in the USSR and served in the Soviet Army and swore an oath to "the Soviet people and government". And yes I remember well how sergeants and officers forbade the guys from the Baltics to speak their native language. (No politics, this is my memory and my life) Most of the photos I have taken during my life were taken with a Zenit, so I am very comfortable with this camera, even though it is very blunt. It was the only 'cheap' DSLR in the USSR. It cost from 100 rubles, which by the way was a month's salary of a young doctor. Now in Ukraine, I bought a Zenith11 body for $2. I'll post the results soon in the monthly thread.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
 
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There is a myth about quality control and soviet cameras. Yes maybe after 70 years some cameras stop working. But almost all Soviet Cameras worked like a tank and sold millions around the world.
I have many Sorient cameras that just work.
Last summer I took my grandfathers 65 years old Zorki 5 that he has not shot in 30 years “since he passed away”.
The camera fires and even the rangefinder patch is visible.
Lens is a little stiff changing aperture but this is normal for old lenses.
 

If I remember correctly 1 deutche Mark in the 80 was 33 Cents
 

Monument to Taras Shevchenko in Kyiv. I took this photo a year before the start of the war. Camera "Smena" 1958 release film Kodak Plus 200
 

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