A 'new' camera

Last week I bought a 30-year-old 'new' Zenit-E.

I had been looking for one already since summer, but I had no clue what would be a suitable price. Before my trip, I had asked friend Oleg in Moscow. According to him in Kyiv $40 ought to be enough for a functioning camera. Having no time to contact Oleg's friend in Kyiv, I almost forgot about the whole thing.

When one of the team members decided to buy an old grey (East?) German dial phone, I suddenly remembered. I asked one of the Ukrainian counterparts. He had a friend who revives old Soviet cameras. 30 minutes later he could meet us. The man offered a working 1970s Zenit-E with two working objectives: one Industar 50-2 and one Helios 44-2. When the man told me the price (UAH 150 = $30) for the camera and the two objectives, I had no incentive to bargain for a better price.

The Zenit-E was produced by the S.A. Zverev Krasnogorsky Zavod, the former Krasnogorsk mechanical plant (KMZ) between 1965 and 1980. It was the single most produced type, with an estimated 8,000,000 produced.

The first results of my photography are expected by next week :) Not sure when I'll have time to scan them and share them with you here!