The E series in particular have such a bad reputation as erratic or easy-breaking claptraps. Have I just gotten two unusually good Zenits? Or is it just anti-Soviet sentiment, or something else? I mean, the E is definitely basic for its time, but still exceedingly usable, and the Zenit S was definitely up to par with most of its contemporaries in the early days of the 35mm SLR... and they're all based on Leica II shutters! I just don't get it.
Zenit but also Fed, Zorki, sold outside SSSR weren't maintained like expensive german and japanese cameras...
Take a Leica II: it will get religious adoration and regular service from a technician seen as a guru in the Leica circles. They all bow and speak in big respect. And put the money. So the Leica II keeps going year after year after year and reselling at insane price.
Take a Zorki, it's regarded with disdain and contempt, a piece of communist crap. People who dare barely touch a Leica with their eyes with handle a Zorki without precautions. Servicing none. In few years or months it's broken. Nobody cared about it, mistreated it then complain it's bad camera.
here on Photrio, Medium Format subforum, a guy created a thread recently about his dear Hasselblad 503 jammed, hasselbaldists gather in sorrow and explain maybe that spring inside the lens or that lever inside the body, all tell these cameras require regular attention and this or that respected guru can make magical passes over the camera and heal it.
Now, if you create a thread telling your Salyut jammed, the same hasselbladists will comment "pff, a piece of crap" "can be used only as doorstep" "not worth"
Zenit are low-tech cameras, which doesn't mean low quality. But on purpose they were built simple, easy to repair (at a time there were repair shops around and lot of fotomesters in SSSR), otherwise very durable structurally. It's a whole one block of aluminium cast, you can drive over it with the car. It's to cameras what Lada Niva is to cars, or what Kalashnikov AK-47 is to rifles.
Soviet ideology was to manufacture for most people, plus some more advanced stuff for professional, scientific and military use, typically with no frills. They were not going to produce luxury capitalist items, it was SSSR.
Now it's about what you want.
when i decided to stop digital camera and go back to analogue, I wanted really back to basics: my eyes, my brain, an external meter usable with any analogue camera, and a purely mechanical camera. So I opted for a Zenit-V. No fancy split prism just plain ground glass in a clear viewfinder, no meter, solid, not afraid to be carried outdoors and take a beating, easily replacable, vast choice of M42 lenses.
over the years I got other bodies that came with lenses I was buying, so I have a Spotmatic F, a Yashica FX3, an old Ricoh, a M42 Miranda, a Zenit-122, an old Practika, a Minolta, but when weather and film combo aren't extreme, ie. I will not need slow speeds, I take the Zenit-V.
With such basic camera I know that if a picture is good it's because it was me who took it, not a damn embedded operating system with magic idiotsproof AF and graphic processor.
I did slight ergomonic tweaks: bore holes and epoxy glue lugs for straps, replace the top wheels with the ones of the Zenit-3M, the speeds wheel of the 3M instead of the native black one, winding lever of the 3M too which needs a frankensteinization with dremel. epoxy and metallic paint, and an ISO reminder wheel on the rewind knob:
compared with the 3M and the regular V:
when I will travel very compact and light yet want an SLR and couple lenses, I take the Zenit-S or the Zenit-3. The 3 feels very nice in the hand, not as small as the S but smaller than the B/E(n)/1x, very smooth and silent.
I overcame the limitation in lenses availability by making custom Adaptall-M39 and Soligor-M39 adapters, as well as modifying couple M42 lenses to M39.
For instance the 3 with a Mir-20 in M39:
with a Tamron 28-80mm, here besides the V with a Soligor 105mm:
or a Tamron 90-210mm :
my preferred SLR, it has 1s to 1/1000s speeds, is the Start:
it has a film cutter, and takes receiving cartridges, so very easy to shot for instance 12 or 18 frames on a 36 roll, cut and develop, keep the rest for another session. Can be done in the dark with any camera: open the door in the dark, cut film with scissors, but with the Start and receiving cartridges you can swap rolls while on the go real fast. The viewfinder is small like on the Zenit, but typically I see what is outside the VF frame before I frame and can do accordingly, and it is so clear, ground glass with a wide split-circle, it's a delight.
Typically there are the usual complains about only the Helios-44 for it. At least in western Europe people seem to not be aware it did sell with a Start-M39 adapter so all the ZM39 lenses can be used after you get adapter (that not easy.... but i have four such adapters) Of course lenses without the fancy "auto" PAD button but who needs that really. With the M39 adapter then like my Zenit-s, 3, 3M, I can use my hacked M42 enses. For instance the Mir-20: