Cameras made in the Soviet Union (USSR)
This is the GOMZ Junost (Юность), a 35mm rangefinder camera produced by Gosudarstvennyi Optiko-Mekhanicheskii Zavod (GOMZ for short) near Leningrad, Russia between the years 1957 and 1961. The Junost was an unusually styled camera which looked unlike any other Soviet camera of the era, with a strange combination of old…
This is a KMZ Zenit (Зенит), a 35mm single lens reflex camera made by Krasnogorski Mekhanicheskii Zavod (KMZ) in the former Soviet Union between the years of 1952 and 1956. The Zenit was the first Zenit camera, first SLR produced by KMZ, and only second Soviet SLR to be produced…
This is a Zenit-6, a 35mm SLR camera made by Krasnogorski Mekhanicheskii Zavod (KMZ) in the former Soviet Union between the years of 1964 and 1968. The Zenit-6 was part of a series of new leaf shutter SLR cameras produced by KMZ that use the Zenit C-mount which is a…
This is the Sport (Спорт), a 35mm Single Lens Reflex camera made by Gosudarstvennyi Optiko-Mekhanicheskii Zavod (GOMZ for short) near Leningrad, Russia between the years 1935 and 1941. The GOMZ Sport is an evolution of an earlier prototype camera called the Gelveta. The GOMZ Sport is credited as the Soviet…
Very few episodes of the Camerosity Podcast are recorded without mentioning at least one Soviet camera, or something about the Soviet photo industry. When deciding what we should discuss in future episodes, it was quite a surprise to the gang and I when we realized we had never devoted an…
This is LOMO 135BC, a 35mm scale focus camera made by Leningradskoe Optiko Mechanichesckoe Objedinenie, or LOMO for short, between the years 1975 and 1982 in the former Soviet city of Leningrad. The 135BC has a design that is loosely inspired by the Rollei 35, but adding a wind up…
This is KMZ Drug (Друг), a 35mm rangefinder camera made by Krasnogorski Mekhanicheskii Zavod (KMZ) in the former Soviet Union between the years of 1959 and 1962. During it’s development, a prototype of the camera was made called the Zorki 7, but it’s name was changed to Drug, which translates…
This is an Almaz (Алмаз) 103, a 35mm single lens reflex camera made by Leningradskoe Optiko Mechanichesckoe Objedinenie, or LOMO for short, between the years 1979 and 1986 in the former Soviet city of Leningrad. There were a total of four models in the Almaz family, but only the 103…
This is a Chaika (ЧАЙКА) 3, a compact 35mm scale focus camera made between the years 1971 and 1973 in Minsk, Belarus during the reign of the Soviet Union by Вelаrusiаn Оpticаl and Mеchaniсаl Аssоciаtiоn or BeLOMO for short. As the name implies, the Chaika 3 was the third model…
This is a FED 5C, a 35mm rangefinder camera made at the F. E. Dzerzhinsky Labour Commune in Kharkiv, Ukraine during the reign of the Soviet Union between the years 1977 and 1990. The FED 5C is an updated version of the original FED 5 adding bright lines to the…
This is a Zenit 16, a 35mm SLR made by Krasnogorski Mekhanicheskii Zavod (KMZ) in the former Soviet Union between the years of 1973 to 1977. It uses the M42 screw mount and has a CdS exposure meter with over and under indicators visible in the viewfinder. The Zenit 16…
This is a Sokol Automat, a 35mm rangefinder camera produced by LOMO (Leningradskoe Optiko Mechanichesckoe Objedinenie) in the Soviet city of Leningrad between the years 1966 and 1978. The Sokol is a large and heavy camera capable of full programmed automatic exposure via three CdS cells (earlier examples had six)…
