Cameras made in the Soviet Union (USSR)
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)…
“Donut bokeh”…. …once you see it, you instantly know you’re talking about an image shot with a catadioptric lens. Catadioptric lenses are as unmistakable themselves as the images they make with their large dimeter barrel with a noticeable round obtrusion right smack in the center of the front element. Catadioptrics…
This is a KMZ Horizont (Горизонт), produced in the former Soviet Union between the years 1967 to 1973 by Krasnogorsky Mekhanichesky Zavod (KMZ). This was the first model in a long line of successful swing lens panoramic cameras that were produced until well after the collapse of the Soviet Union. …
This is a Salyut (Салют), a medium format SLR produced at the Arsenal plant in Kyiv, Soviet Union between the years 1957 and 1972. The Salyut was the first Soviet made medium format SLR, and is very similar, but not an exact copy of the original Hasselblad 1000 F. It…
This is the Voskhod (Восход), a 35mm scale focus camera built by Leningradskoye Optiko-Mekhanicheskoye Obyedinenie (LOMO for short) between the years 1964 and 1968. The Voskhod was a well built and uniquely designed camera with an arrangement of controls that made it ideal for both landscape and portrait orientation. It…
