arhphotographic

I have mixed feelings about Zenit cameras. I’ve had two in the past and enjoyed using them. However I felt I was missing out and hampered by these humble cameras when compared to all the advancements that technology was providing in the 70’s and 80’s when I had my Zenits. (sentence too long repeating the same things)

The Zenit E doesn’t have through-the-lens metering but rather an external meter situated above the lens, indicated by the grid pattern in the picture below.

You set the film speed on the top dial, pictured below, by moving the inner part of the dial, highlighted in green, to match the speed of the film.

To get a meter reading you point the camera towards your subject. Can you see the crescent shaped window in the picture below? By rotating the outer dial (highlighted in red), you match the circle with the needle. You can then select which shutter speed and aperture combination you want to use and input that manually into the camera and lens.

After 40 years of using more advanced cameras, how would I feel about the Zenit during my return to film photography? I loaded up with some Kodak Color Plus vintage 1984 and selected a Pentacon 50 mm f1.8 lens along with a rather average Hanimex 80-200mm f4. So with the time circuits set and the flux capacitor fluxing let’s go.

The same feelings I had 40 years ago resurfaced, not unsurprisingly. However having had to repair the shutter curtain, outlined here -https://arhphotographic.wordpress.com/2019/06/02/curtains-on-a-zenit-e/, I feel a little more affinity for this camera. Given the slower process of getting a meter reading and inputting this into the camera I can see me using this camera when I’m doing landscapes. While it may lag behind in technology terms, it is still a competent tool for creating images I’m pleased with. Running one film through a camera can really only be a first impressions experience, which can be misleading. It will be interesting to see if my view changes as I continue to use the camera.

I was particularly impressed with the Pentacon 50mm lens, but that’s a subject for another blog.

So a camera from the past does have a future.