A classic combo - like Fish 'n' Chips, or Mac&Cheese if you prefer. There's a story behind this kit I'm writing about today. I was gifted the Zenit TTL from a guy I was buying an old Fed camera from. It just appeared in the package - without a lens and I had no idea it was coming but he explained later. He had bought it from the Auction Site and kept the lens for his digital camera, as that seems to be all the rage these days. No matter - the body looked in good condition and it was gratefully received. I put in the back of the 'camera cupboard' and forgot about it. Until, that it, my old Uni mate (who you might remember from
this post) found out about it and very kindly send me a Helios 44-M 58mm f/2 lens to put on it. He had similarly bought the lens from the Auction Site and tried it on his pixel-snapper but didn't like it much. So, being the decent sort he is, he sent it to me, in the hope that it might be of some use.
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| Zenit&Helios, FP4+ in RO9, Adox MCC paper |
I eventually got around to loading the Zenit with FP4+ and just to test that everything was working correctly I walked around the garden for an hour, snapping pretty randomly at anything and everything. Including, of course, the hound:
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| The Hound, resting his old tired eyes in the sun. Printed on Adox paper. |
I have to say I was mightily impressed by the Helios lens - very contrasty, sharp and of course that signature out-of-focus rendering. It differed from the last Helios lens I used, in about 1973, which had a manual diaphragm. This had an auto diaphragm, so not much to go wrong once you set the aperture and focus. And the camera did well, too - the speeds all seemed pretty accurate. I particularly liked the old style ground glass focussing screen - well, I liked it at the time but it turned out to be harder to nail the focus than I thought, since I found out after developing the film that I'd missed in quite a few shots. Another classic combination, by the way, FP4+ and RO9 (1+25 9 mins if you care about such things).
All in all, a fine piece of kit and I would use it again in an instant.
Perhaps one day I'll find one of the Helios lenses and give it a try. So far I've strictly avoided the Soviet cameras -- that's a rabbit hole I just don't need to go down. I have a propensity for rabbit holes, you see.
ReplyDeleteThere's a whole world of Eastern Bloc cameras waiting for you, Jim! Exacta, Pentacon, Practika, Fed, Zorki, Zenit, Kiev...these gems just can't be ignored so get digging ;)
DeleteThe Hound is most photogenic. I have a Zenit-E and the manual aperture 58/2 Helios lens. I found it in my parents' china cabinet and asked to have it. I used it once or twice. It has five shutter speeds plus B, so it's not that practical. And the viewfinder is pretty dim, though a cleaning might fix that.
ReplyDeleteCheers Marcus he is (like his owner) a handsome boy! ;)
DeleteThe 1/500 top speed on the Zenit is rather limiting I agree but as I said I liked the view through the finder, even if it didn't like me. Takes some getting used to, for sure but I was impressed that this kit worked so well after what, 30, 40 years?
I just got mine off the shelf and pressed the shutter button. Seems to be working. The serial number begins with 75, so I wonder if that is the year it was made. My father bought it at about that time.
DeleteAh... the Eastern Bloc rabbit hole :) What a great phrase for it, Jim and Michael.
ReplyDeleteI have been looking into this hole for quite some time now, I have to admit, but not yet moved inside. I got a couple of russian lenses laying around waiting for me to move further, but I have to say I've tried them very briefly on the leicas a couple of times. We'll see if I find a decent enough camera or two at some point to investigate this seemingly bottomless rabbit hole a bit further.
There's a guy in our Photo Club who has nearly as many film cameras as I do (although he's mostly a digi-snapper he likes the film gear too). I had a play with one of his Pentacon Six cameras the night we were out in Ballintoy. It's a beauty! A great big SLR on steroids and looked in remarkably fine condition. Nice glass, too...
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