Kiev 4 (Киев 4)

My most recent acquisition is this Soviet Kiev 4. It is a straight copy of the Zeiss Ikon Contax III (with only very slight changes).

Kiev 4 - front view

At the end of WWII, the Soviet army had Zeiss Ikon rebuild their production line for the Contax and then, once the line was working properly, they shipped the production line to Kiev in Ukraine. They also renamed the camera Kiev. This camera is a Kiev 4 and is a copy of the Contax III - there was also a Kiev 4a which was a copy of the Contax II. The difference between the 4 and 4a is the presence of a light meter in the Kiev 4.

The Soviet Union produced cameras both for the home market and for export. Those intended for home consumption had their logos and indicators in Cyrillic while those for export used the Latin alphabet. My camera has the logo in both Cyrillic and Latin but other writing is all in Cyrillic, indicating that the camera was not intended for export (сделано в CCCP = Made in USSR ) 

The camera has a very Zeiss Ikon look about it and the body is broadly similar to the Pentacon F and Contaflex - both German derivatives of the Contax, the Pentacon F being East German and the Contaflex being West German (younger readers should consult their history books!).

The camera is heavy - 768g with the standard Jupiter 8 lens - and the controls reveal the camera's design date (1936). the film advance is a knob (usual in the 1930s, very old fashioned in 1969 when my camera was made) as is the film rewind. The viewfinder is very small, hard to use while wearing glasses and (because it is bare metal) likely to scratch modern plastic spectacle lenses. The last anochronistic item is the tripod boss which is 3/8 inch Whitworth. Standard for consumer cameras had been 1/4 inch for some tine (currently 1/4" UNC rather than 1/4" Whitworth but the two are close enough to be interchangeable).

The knob on the right hand end of the top plate has three functions

1.  in the centre is the shutter release, threaded for a standard cable release.
2. around the shutter release is a knurled ring to wind on the film and reset the shutter.
3. The shutter speed selector - operated by lifting and turning the film advance ring.

The manual says that the shutter speed can be selected either before or advancing the the film but that it is better done after advancing then film.

Kiev 4 - top plate

Next to the right hand knob is a window showing the frame numbers. This is nice and large and shows 12 numbers with a red dot indicating the current frame. This counts up from zero and goes to 36. It is reset manually by a toothed wheel on the back edge of the top plate.

Being a rangefinder camera, there is no pentaprism hump but where you might expect to see one there is a light meter. This has a selenium sensor and so has no need for a battery. One drawback of selenium meters is that they can lose sensitivity with continued exposure to light. To prevent this from happening, there is a cover to the meter window on the front of the camera. thesis opened by pushing the cover slightly to the right when it will spring open.

On the top of the meter is the meter window. This has a central lozenge and -2 and -4 marks. The meter is used by turning the control knob on the left until the meter needle is centred on the central lozenge. The -2 and -4 marks are used in low light conditions - they are each one stop away from the central position. If there is insufficient light to get the meter needle to the lozenge, you line it up with the -2 or -4 and then multiply the indicated exposure by either one stop or two stops.

Also on the top of the meter is the accessory shoe. There are no electrical contacts here so this is a cold shoe. It was intended that this accessory shoe would hold an auxiliary viewfinder when longer focal length lenses were used. In the centre of the accessory shoe is the legend сделано в CCCP (made in USSR) and the serial number 6968008 which indicates that the camera was made in 1969 (the first two digits of the serial number being the year of manufacture).

Kiev 4 - accessory shoe

On the left end of the top plate is another multi-function knob. 

1. The outer knurled ring adjusts the light meter.
2. The inner ring which is adjusted by two studs to set the film speed.
3. The centre is a pull up knob for rewinding the film.

The film speeds are indicated in гост which translates as GOST. This is basically the same as ASA (or ISO). The Gost scale is awkward as it does not have the usual ASA numbers. There is 65, 130, 250 and 500. Using 'western' film, ASA 100, 200 or 400 film requires guessing the position of the film speed selector. If this scale was in DIN, it would be 20 DIN (65 Gost), 23 DIN (125 Gost), 26 DIN (225 Gost), 29 DIN (500 Gost) which is probably the reason for the choices - the camera having been designed in Germany where DIN is usual.

The front of the camera is dominated (as always) by the lens mount. This is the Contax bayonet mount (not to be confused with the Contax/Yashica mount of SLR cameras). There are actually two bayonet mounts here. The 50mm Jupiter 8 lens fits into the mount and latches onto three lugs inside the mount. There is a second, larger, bayonet mount around the distance scale which is for longer focal length lenses.

Kiev 4 - lens mount

This lens mount is connected to the rangefinder and either rotates to focus the lens when the rangefinder wheel is turned (more later) or turns the rangefinder mechanism when the lens is turned. When the lens is focused on infinity it locks inlace. When locked, the lens cannot be focused. It can be unlocked in two ways.

1. there is a small pointed stud near the upper left of the lens mount which can be moved away from the lens to unlock it.
2. there is a lever by the rangefinder wheel which you depress as you turn the wheel.

On the right of the lens mount (right as in when using the camera) is a delay action lever. This rotates through just over 90 degrees to wind-up the action. It is activated by sliding a small button which is usually hidden beneath the lever. On the other side of the lens, just below the viewfinder window, is a PC socket for connecting a flash gun.

The rangefinder shares the same eyepiece as the viewfinder. To give as much accuracy as possible to the rangefinder , the two windows on the front are kept as far apart as possible (9 cm centre to centre). This is much further apart than on the Leica which was the main competitor when this camera was designed in 1936 and also than the FED and Zorki copies of the Leica.

Kiev 4 - rangefinder wheel

Just to the right of the light meter and slightly below it is the rangefinder wheel mentioned above. I find this very hard to use as when my index finger is on the wheel ready to turn it, my middle finger naturally falls over the rangefinder window, rendering it inoperable. For me, it is much easier to focus by turning the lens. The rangefinder spot is easy to see and is slightly yellow for maximum contrast. This yellowing is achieved by 'silvering' the internals of the rangefinder with gold.

For those who do not know, a rangefinder works by producing two different images in the viewfinder.

As you change focus, one of the images moves. To achieve accurate focus, you make sure your subject is in the centre of the viewfinder and turn the rangefinder wheel or lens until the two images are superimposed on each other. With practice, this is quick, easy and accurate.

Kiev 4 - rear view

To open the camera, it is necessary to remove the back and base as one unit. At home, working on a table, this is slightly easier than a hinged back. In the field, it is a nightmare. You need to find somewhere to put the back/base while manipulating the film. To make matters worse, the take-up spool is loose and liable to fall out.

The reason for the loose take-up spool is that it can be replaced with an empty cassette, removing the need to rewind the film when finished. This gives a faster reload time - good for studio work but not good elsewhere. I think, in general, this camera was designed with the studio in mind.

Kiev 4 - back/base removed

To release the back/base there are two folding lugs to turn half a turn. Inside the camera is as you would expect a 35 mm camera to be. Until, that is, you look at the shutter. Instead of the rubberised cloth usual until the 1980s, it consists of brass slats which move vertically and are held on cloth ribbons. this works the same as a cloth shutter as distinct from the modern metal shutters. Speeds provided are impressive - up to 1/1250 seconds and down to 1/2 second. The speed range is the modern one of 1/125, 1/250, 1/500 etc.

T

Kiev 4 - detail of brass shutter

The lens supplied is the Jupiter-8M. This is a Soviet copy of the Carl Zeiss Sonnar lens. This lens has six elements in three groups. How well it performs remains to be seen. Someone has attempted to dismantle my lens (never a good sign) evidenced by the aperture adjustment ring being out of kilter. Hopefully, that is as far as they got - none of the internal black paint is scratched which his a good sign. Ro-orienting the aperture ring was simply done.

Jupiter-8M lens - front bezel

The aperture has nine blades which gives a good shape to the aperture. What is curiose is that the aperture blades are curved (see photo) producing a clearly less than circular disc. I will try to produce some booked shots with my test film to see if this makes much difference. 

detail of lens showing curved aperture blades

The Jupiter 8 M is a 50 mm lens with a maximum aperture of f/2 and a minimum aperture of f/22 - quite a useable range. f/22 is about  the limit in 35 mm photography before diffraction softening starts to be a nuisance. The aperture ring has click stops but can still be set between these values  The finish on this lens is shiny chrome with a black lens bezel. - contrasting with the matt chrome on the camera body.

Test film is developed and here are the results. I am quite impressed. Soviet execution of German design is as good as it always is. There are no light leaks - always a bugbear of old cameras, neither in the seals around the base/back nor in the sutler blinds - an advantage, I would think, of using brass rather than cloth. Exposure is even indicating that the shutter blinds are both moving smoothly. There is no lens flare - although these test pictures were mostly taken in rather overcast conditions.

The rangefinder test (see below) shows both that the rangefinder is accurate at close distances and that the lens produces sharp images. The picture of the iron shutter shows the one draw back of a rangefinder camera (or any viewfinder camera, come to that). I had the shutter central in the viewfinder but it is distinctly off-set in the image - parallax problem. Some cameras adjust the viewfinder when focusing closer but not here.

The pictures:

Rangefinder test - focused on the nearest finial

Enlargement of the finial showing it to be in good focus.

Metal shutter showing parallax error in the viewfinder

Lincoln City Square

Witham looking west

Witham looking west

Old bicycle that I use as a test piece for all my old cameras

Indoor shot of Lincoln Central market - fairly slow shutter speed.

Fisherman as Easington, East Yorkshire

 (сделано в CCCP = Made in USSR ) ,  

Legacy lens adapters

In the course of collecting these old camera, I have also collected a number of old lenses, some of which are very good.

My Olympus OM10 camera has a Zuiko 50mm, f1.8 lens which six elements in five groups and a Vivitar zoom lens (75-205mm) which has a very good reputation.  I also have another Vivitar zoom lens (20-200mm) which doesn't have quite the same reputation as the other Vivitar but performs very well nonetheless.

My Zenit E came with the famous Helios-44 which is a superb copy of the Carl Zeiss Biotar (six elements in four groups) and my Praktica LT3 came with a Meyer Optiks Domiplan which is a triplet - so not in the Zuiko or Helios-44 league but a good performer when stopped down.

When thinking about a 50mm prime lens for my Canon DSLR, it occurred to me that I already had several good  50mm prime lenses and was there any point in buying another?

With this thought in mind, I looked into buying an adapter so I could use one of my old prime lenses (it would seem that these  have morphed into legacy lenses while i wasn't looking).

First, I looked into buying an adapter for my Olympus OM lenses.   There are a number of these available and they are quite cheap.  These range from simple metal rings with an OM female bayonet on one side and an EF male bayonet on the other - these cost £2 to £3 each - to more complex adapters with electrical contacts and a chip.  this is then one I bought and it cost me £12.99 including postage.

The adapter ring is very well made out of brass which has been chrome plated.  The EF bayonet fits smoothly into the Canon digital camera and, similarly, the Olympus lenses fit smoothly into the female side of the adapter.

When the lens, adapter and camera are all fitted together, the result is snug and secure.  There is no significant play, even with the heavy and long Vivitar zoom.    The electrical contacts make contact and the camera recognises the adapter.

The point of the contacts and chip is so that the focal length and aperture of the lens can be stored in the Exif data of the resulting digital file.  th achieve this it is necessary to programme the chip on the adapter.  t5rhis is actually quite easy - but not simple as it involves quite a few steps. Once the adapter is programmed for a particular lens, it is necessary to manually set the aperture on the lens and then separately set the aperture on the camera - this aperture is then stored in the Exif data.

If accurate Exif data is important to you, this process will be worthwhile (and will be necessary to repeat for each lens you use with the adapter) but I routinely ignore Exif data so I do not bother with the process.  If, like me, you want to be simple, you just focus the lens, set the aperture (you need the camera to be in Av mode) and let the camera select the shutter speed.

The adapter works well so long as you remember the lens is entirely manual - you need to focus and set the aperture for each shot.  Given that I use fully manual cameras a lot of the time, this should be second nature, but as soon as I pick up my digital DSLR I forget to worry about focus and exposure.

My next adapter is for M42 lenses (also known as Pentax fit, although developed by Zeiss Ikon in Dresden in the 1940s).

I had two M42 lenses when I bought this adapter - the Helios-44 Biotar copy and the Meyer-Optik Domiplan.  Both screwed nicely into the adapter but there is a problem with the Domiplan lens in that it is an automatic lens - there is a pin on the lens that must be depressed by the camera just before the shutter is released in order to close the diaphragm. The adapter leaves this pin alone so the Domiplan can only be used wide open.  

Actually, while trying to get this lens to work with the adapter, I noticed that the lens has a significant fungal growth on one of the inner glass surfaces.  This lens is now in the dustbin!

The Helios-44 lens worked well.  This adapter is a simple aluminium disc with no contacts or chip sop there is no need to set anything up.  The same working method as with the OM adapter is required - focus with the lens diaphragm wide open, stop down the lens to the required aperture and let the camera sort out the shutter speed.  As there are no contacts, no lens details are stored in the Exif data.

Both adapters are easy to use and work well.  Not being interested in the Exif data, I would have been better off buying a cheaper and simpler OM adapter, but the one I did buy was certainly cheap enough.

Theoretically, as the camera is metering the light through the lens it should give the right exposure regardless of the lens used.  It has been suggested to me that TTL meters do not cope well at low light levels so will give poor exposure at small apertures.  I have not found that.  Initially, using the OM adapter with the Zuiko 50mm lens, the camera consistently overexposed at all apertures with the highlights clipping in all photographs.  The cause of this is that I was not setting the aperture on the camera as well as on the lens so the metering system assumed - incorrectly - that the lens would shut down when I pressed the shutter release.

Repeating my OM test exposures with the camera set to f1.8, the exposures were fine with the histograms coming up well to the left with no clipping.  This setting of the aperture on the camera as well as on the lens is only a problem with chipped adapters - or you can do as I now will and keep the camera set to its smallest aperture.

When using the Helios-44 with its simple adapter, the exposure histograms were well to the left and without any clipping so giving usable photographs.  This is regardless of the aperture set on the lens.  With this adapter, it is not possible to set an aperture on the camera as the absence of contacts makes the camera default to f00

Test pictures:  first, the same scene at different apertures (after these, a focal plane test).

OM adapter with a Zuiko 50mm, f1.8 lens.

 

aperture f16

aperture f5.6

aperture f1.8

M42 adapter with Helios-44 58mm, f2 lens.

aperture f16

aperture f56.

aperture f2

Focal plane test:  in order to focus on infinity, it is necessary that the focal node of the lens is the right distance from the film/sensor.  For a 50mm lens, this distance is 50mm (in some designs, the node might be in front of the physical lens).  This distance is split in two.  The first part is the film/sensor to mount distance (obviously, this never changes) and the second part is the mount to node distance.  This second part is susceptible to being changed by the adapter.  If the mount is too thin, the lens will still focus on infinity but its near focus point will be further away than intended.  If the mount is too thick, the lens will focus on nearer objects ok but will not be able to focus on infinity.  It is this last that I want to check.  I am not too bothered if I cannot focus on an object two feet away but I am very bothered about not being able to focus on infinity.  To be clear, I had better define 'infinity' - for this purpose, it is anything over 50metres away.

First the OM adapter.  The first picture is a standard scene in Lincoln.  The second picture is an enlarged crop from the centre to critically check the focus.

detail from the centre

Now the M42 adapter.

detail from the centre

You can see by comparing the two details that the Zuiko is performing better at a distance.  I think I can safely say that this lens adapter is correctly placing the lens in the mount.  The detail from the Helios-44 photograph is a lot less clear - but I cannot say if it is down to the adapter or the lens performance.  It is certainly good enough to use.

Praktica TL3

Praktica TL3, front view

lens: Meyer-Optik Görlitz Domiplan
focal length:  50 mm
apertures:  f2.8 to f22
focus range: 0.75m to infinity
lens fitting: 42 mm thread
shutter: metal vertical focal plane
speeds: to 1/1000
flash: bulb or electronic
film size: 35 mm

This is a standard looking camera from between 1984 and 1986.  It is a fairly heavy (very heavy by modern standards) and large enough to hold in two hands.  The ergonomics - the layout of the controls - is, again, normal for the time.  It is my second Praktica, the other being an MTL5B.

This camera takes 42mm thread lenses (also known as Pentax thread) which means that lenses are readily available.  It is specifically designed to work with automatic lenses (those with a pin to stop down the lens) - when the shutter is fired, a cam presses the pin and closes the aperture.  This is not essential, though, and the camera works fine with fully manual lenses.  I have shot half my test film with my Soviet Helios-44 lens from my Zenit E.  So long as you remember to manually stop the lens down for both metering and picture taking there is no problem.

This is a fully mechanical camera and no battery is required for its operation.  It does, however, use a battery for the metering system.  This should be a mercury battery giving 1.3 volts but these are no longer available.  I am using an alkaline 1.5 volt alternative which 'should' cause the camera to underexpose but I have checked the results of the built-in meter with my Ikophot meter and they are in complete agreement.

This is an SLR camera and so both metering and focussing are conducted through the lens (known as TTL, for the uninitiated).  With an automatic lens fitted, metering is done by selecting either the shutter speed or aperture, holding down the metering lever beside the shutter release and the adjusting either the aperture or the shutter speed until the needle in the viewfinder is as close to the circle as possible (i.e. it is a match-needle meter).  With the supplied lens, this is within 1/2 stop of 'perfect', with the Helios-44 it is to the nearest whole stop.

The meter can be set to a range of film speeds from 12 ASA/12 DIN to 1600 ASA/33 DIN.  It is settable in 1 DIN stages which equates to 1/3 stop.

top and rear view

The shutter is a vertical metal focal plane shutter.  It has a good range of speeds - up to 1/1000 seconds which is plenty fast enough for my photography.  There are two flash synchronisation speeds: 1/30 for bulbs and a separate position on the speed selector dial for electronic flash, which the manual says is 'about 1/125.  Both bulbs and electronic flash can synchronise at slower speeds.

Electronic flash can synchronise at 1/125 seconds (quite a high sync speed for the time) because this camera has a vertical shutter with three metal blades.  In the manual, Praktica tout this as a modern invention but Zeiss Ikon used a vertical metal shutter in the Contax I in 1932

The shutter release is not my favourite part of this camera.  It is placed on the front of the camera rather than on the top plate which I always find awkward.  Secondly, the shutter release has to be pressed flush with the housing.  This might be just my camera but a little less travel would be good.

The film winder is a lever which travels through 180 degrees but the first 20 or so degrees do nothing.

On top of the prism is an accessory shoe which has 'hot' contacts for a flash gun.  This is the only way of connecting a flash gun as there is no PC connector.  The only other control on the top plate is the film rewind crank.  As was normal for the time, this is an annoyingly small folding crank.  In the early 1960s several manufacturers introduced a large rewind crank on the base plate and it is a pity this did not become the standard.

Pressing the shutter release, you experience a significant resistance and then there is a loud and tactile 'clunk'.  I had thought my Zenit E had a heavy action but this is much worse.  I am hoping that most of this is the mirror slapping up and not the shutter.

The supplied lens is a Meyer Optik Domiplan f2.8 50mm lens.  This is a triplet lens and a cheap option.  I have yet to see the results of this lens but I have a 50mm Domiplan on my Exa IIa and that lens is fine.  Available apertures are from f2.8 to f22 in 1/2 stop clicks.

Focussing is from 0.75m to infinity and the focussing scale is in feet as well as metres.  The action is fairly stiff and changing the focus from near to far will result in the lens unscrewing rather than focussing.  Hopefully, this is lack of use and will sort itself out with use rather than being down to physical damage.

30 April 2013:

I now have the results of my test film.  It is not good.  There is a large light leak from the hinge end of the back.   I have just removed the remains of the foam light seal and replaced it with a new piece of foam.  Two frames out of the thirty six on the roll came out with no light damage.  So, light damage apart, I am quite impressed - the Domiplan lens works fine even though it is only a triplet

Lincoln Cornhill

Waterside North, Lincoln

Triton Road, Lincoln

Fed 5 (ФЭД 5)

This is a very sturdy camera. It is black, square, solid with no frills or cosmetics. Fed cameras started off as copies of German Leica cameras and while the design of a Fed might be identical to a 1930s Leica, manufacturing standards are certainly not.

As I am being fairly negative here, I would like to point out that I do not have experience of Fed cameras in general, merely of my own Fed 5B.

Actually, the camera works very well. Setting the exposure using my trusty Leningrad exposure meter, all the images in my test film were exposed as I would wish – good blacks, clear whites and a usable range of greys in between. This means that both the shutter and the aperture settings are at least reasonable. I have no means of testing shutter speeds, but they are clearly close to nominal. The aperture has six blades giving a hexagonal aperture – for those concerned with bokeh, this should bode well.

The lens is much better than adequate. Scanning the film taken with this camera and enlarging to full screen on my fifteen inch monitor gave an image that was still sharp with no visible vignetting or barrel/pin cushion distortion. The only problem optically is light leakage from a poorly fitting back.

The controls are “firm” - that is to say, definite effort is required to make this camera do any thing. I find focussing difficult as the focussing ring is close to the camera body and is stiffish to turn. This stiffness seems to be entirely in the lens assembly as the rangefinder mechanism in the camera is quite free and requires very little effort to move. Advice on the Internet is to dismantle the lens, remove the Soviet grease and replace with modern light grease. It seems that the Soviet grease hardens with time and stops the lens turning freely. Actually, this is not confined to Soviet cameras - all old cameras suffer from this to a degree and Agfa camera are notorious for it. The plus side here is that the whole lens mount moves to focus, not just the front element which means that image quality is not sacrificed in order to make a cheaper lens. As this is a rangefinder camera, focussing is easy and accurate – a simple matter of aligning the two images in the centre of the viewfinder. If this is inaccurate, it can be adjusted by focussing on a clear vertical at infinity (i.e. anything over 40 feet or so away) and turning the adjusting screw until the images coincide.

To load a film, the back and base are removed in one piece - much like a Contax. This makes it easy for large fingers to access they film chamber and fit the new film. on my specimen, the cams that hold the back in place are badly made and the back does not quite fit snuggly. this allows light to leak into the camera and fog the film. This is easily obviated by applying black plastic tape to the joins after loading with film - not a really satisfactory technique but it does allow the camera to be used.

Care must be taken when buying second hand FSU (Former Soviet Union) cameras. If the writing is in Cyrillic and the camera is pristine, it most likely has never been used as it was seriously flawed from new. Buying a camera with clear and definite signs of use means that the camera, at the least, has worked well at some point. Dating Fed cameras is easy - the first two digits of the serial number are the year of manufacture. My FED5 body has the serial number 849211 and so was made in 1984. On the other hand, the lens I have has the serial number 9249524 and so was made in 1992. This means that the body/lens combination is not original - not that it really matters.

Zenit E

Zenit E (1981 version)

The Zenit E is a Russian camera made in the USSR by KMZ in the town of Krasnogorsk (also made in Belarus). Soviet era cameras have a poor reputation – mostly undeserved in the West – but my Zenit E purchased in 1973 was an excellent camera. It performed well for many years with much neglect (including being dropped off a moving bus!). I now have a newer Zenit E from 1981

lens:  Helios-44

focal length:  58 mm

apertures: f2 to f16

focus range: 0.5 m (2.6 ft) to infinity

lens fitting: fixed

shutter: cloth focal plane

speeds: 1 s to 1/500 s

flash: PC socket

film size: 35mm

The camera is solid and weighty – weighing a whole kilo. The body is made from die cast aluminium with brass base plate and top housing. The controls are well placed and accessible – they compare well with a Fed 5 where I have to fumble for the poorly placed shutter release. I have large, not very nimble, hands and I find this camera very easy to use.

The shutter offers speeds from 1/30 to 1/500 plus B which is plenty for normal use. The focal plane shutter synchronises with the flash socket at 1/30 both for electronic flash (X) and for Bulb flash (MF).

The built in meter is a selenium meter which does not require a battery and is not TTL. It is no improvement over a hand-held meter other than you only need to carry one item. The meter is of the traditional match needle type and has settings for 13 – 28 DIN and 16 – 500 ASA (new scale, the same as ISO).

Zenit E rear view

Zenits came with a Helios-44 lens with a focal length of 58mm which is normal for 35 mm film (normal means it gives the same perspective as the human eye does). The Helios-44 lens is a copy of the Carl Zeiss Jena Biotor lens. This lens has an aperture range of f2 to f16 which is more than adequate for most situations. The aperture setting ring has click-stops and there is a second ring to close the aperture after focussing. - the lens does not stop down automatically when the shutter release is pressed, you have to do this manually after focussing and before touching the shutter release. This lens has an excellent reputation and is considered to be better than the Carl Zeiss Jena lens it copies - the Helios lens is multi-coated which the Biotar lens was not.

Focussing is from 0.5m to infinity. The fitting is the Pentacon M42 thread as was standard on Praktica and Pentax (and many other cameras) up to the advent of bayonet fittings in the 1970s. The focussing screen is plain ground glass with no micro-prism or split image focussing aids found on more expensive cameras. There is a printed depth of view scale on the lens barrel and a hyper-focal position marked which will give a focus range of 5m to infinity at f8.

There is an accessory shoe fitted on top of the pentaprism but it is not a “hot” shoe, flash connection being by way of a PC connector on the face of the camera.

Zenit E top

Loading film is simple and easy. The back is hinged along one short side and the other short side is locked by a sliding catch. The rewind knob has to be pulled up to allow for the insertion of film the cassette and when pushed back in, locks the cassette in place. the film travels over the film plane, over two sprocket wheels and fits into a slot on the take up spool. once the back is closed it is necessary to wind on two frames to place unfogged film behind the lens. At this point, you can set the film counter to zero.

Focussing is not as easy as with most manual SLRs of the period as the focussing screen is plain ground glass - no micro-prism, no split image - but it is certainly adequate.

The Helios-44 lens is very sharp and if stopped down to f8 the depth of field is more than capable of removing any defects in poor manual focusing.

When one is used to an automatic camera, it is easy to forget to manually stop down the lens before pressing the shutter release. To make focussing easier, the aperture ring has click stops at each f number but does not actually alter the aperture which remains wide open until the secondary aperture ring is turned after focussing. once used to this camera, it becomes second nature and adds to the slowness of using this camera. I find that this slowing down to be useful as you are forced to be more considered in your actions and this leads to better pictures.

.