Zenit TTL with Helios-44M
A gift from a friend, it has come in handy for Red Oktober this year, seeing as all my other FSU cameras have issues, and I have not been working on cameras for a while.
Though it looks like it is built like a tank, I've got some Japanese cameras that are smaller yet heavier and more solid, belying it's humble beginnings as a knock-off of the Leica II, the Zorki-1.
An improvement to the Zenit E, the meter cells are now inside the body, and are CdS instead of selenium. Which means the need of a 625 1.35v battery. It didn't matter, because the meter is dead or stuck in this one, so I just used Sunny-16 to guide me on the exposures, factoring in the yellow filter mounted on front of the lens.
I only missed on one shot from the whole roll, but that was because I forgot to reset the aperture. The camera handles well, it doesn't feel too cheap though not very impressive either. The lens is nice and sharp, and without a filter on front gives a bluish look in the viewfinder. This kind of reminds me of those pocket blue filters a photographer could use in the early days to determine how the scene would look on b&w film. I didn't notice any flare from the Helios-44M, using a Nikon collapsible rubber hood.
Overall a good camera to have, since you no longer have to worry about burning a hole in the shutter curtains, like all the rangefinder models are prone to. I may get some more lenses for it later on.
Zenit TTL with Helios-44M
A gift from a friend, it has come in handy for Red Oktober this year, seeing as all my other FSU cameras have issues, and I have not been working on cameras for a while.
Though it looks like it is built like a tank, I've got some Japanese cameras that are smaller yet heavier and more solid, belying it's humble beginnings as a knock-off of the Leica II, the Zorki-1.
An improvement to the Zenit E, the meter cells are now inside the body, and are CdS instead of selenium. Which means the need of a 625 1.35v battery. It didn't matter, because the meter is dead or stuck in this one, so I just used Sunny-16 to guide me on the exposures, factoring in the yellow filter mounted on front of the lens.
I only missed on one shot from the whole roll, but that was because I forgot to reset the aperture. The camera handles well, it doesn't feel too cheap though not very impressive either. The lens is nice and sharp, and without a filter on front gives a bluish look in the viewfinder. This kind of reminds me of those pocket blue filters a photographer could use in the early days to determine how the scene would look on b&w film. I didn't notice any flare from the Helios-44M, using a Nikon collapsible rubber hood.
Overall a good camera to have, since you no longer have to worry about burning a hole in the shutter curtains, like all the rangefinder models are prone to. I may get some more lenses for it later on.