This is a Voigtländer Prominent 35mm rangefinder camera made by Voigtländer AG Braunschweig between the years 1952 and 1958. At the time of it’s release, it was Voigtländer’s top of the line 35mm camera and was designed to compete with Ernst Leitz’s Leica series. It has an interchangeable bayonet lens mount, a coincident…
Aaaah, Halloween is here again! Candy, costumes, trick-or-treaters, and for the third year in a row, another “Cameras of the Dead” post! This being my 5th Cameras of the Dead article, you probably already know what to expect. Three cameras from my “camera graveyard of death” (aka my basement) that…
This is a Zenit-E 35mm SLR camera, made by Krasnogorski Mekhanicheskii Zavod (KMZ) in the former Soviet Union between the years of 1965 and 1986. The entire Zenit (Зенит) line was extremely successful and not only sold very well, but it has become an iconic camera of the Soviet Union. Millions…
This is a Smena (Смена) 4, a 35mm compact camera made by GOMZ in Leningrad, Russia and was produced between 1958 and 1960. It was the 4th in the Smena family of cameras, and the last to be produced with this body style, made entirely of Bakelite. The camera was…
Last week’s Keppler’s Vault featured two different Russian Lens articles, so this week I thought I’d include a couple articles I’ve found that talk about 1950s and 60s Soviet cameras. On a side note, it’s interesting to me that every one of these articles refers to them as “Russian”, rather…
This is a Kiev-19, a 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera made by the Arsenal Factory in Kiev, Ukraine between the years 1985 to 1994. It was a replacement to the earlier Kiev-17 which was the first Soviet camera to use Nikon’s F bayonet mount. Most Nikon F-mount lenses will work…
In the last couple of decades, Soviet era cameras and lenses have enjoyed a generally positive reputation, making lenses like the Jupiter-8 and Helios-44 sought after by people searching for cost-effective alternatives to German or Japanese models. Even the lower end Industars can be good options for people looking for acceptable…
This is a Zorki 5 rangefinder camera made by Krasnogorskiy Mechanicheskiy Zavod (KMZ) in Krasnogorsk during the years of 1958 – 1959. This particular camera is an early and much less common variant with a red Zorki-5 logo engraved into the body, and a square rangefinder window. Later Zorki 5s had a…
Unless you have a strong interest in history, specifically the US/USSR Cold War, most people under the age of 40 will never remember the back and forth competitiveness of the American and Soviet space race. Both countries realized after World War II that the space beyond Earth’s atmosphere was a…
This is a Leningrad 35mm rangefinder camera made by Gosularstvennyi Optiko-Mekhanicheskii Zavod (GOMZ for short) between the years of 1956 and 1968. Although using the same M39 screw mount as many other Soviet rangefinders, the Leningrad is not based off any existing German design like the Zenit or FED rangefinders that…
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The first 5 words of the article below from the February/March 1962 issue of Camera 35 magazine are: The Alpa Reflex is expensive… Talk about the understatement of the year! According to this article, in 1962 an Alpa 6C with 50mm f/1.8 Macro-Switar Apochromat lens retailed for $469. When adjusted…
