Before World War II, 35mm cameras started to gain popularity with rangefinders like Leica and Leica copies like the Zorki. After the war, and especially into the 1950’s, the SLR style cameras started to take over. One being the KMZ Start. The KMZ Start (Старт in Russian), is a professional 35mm SLR camera made in… Continue reading The KMZ Start
The Kiev 4A is the third Soviet camera that I have gotten to try. It is another camera from the extensive collection of Mike Eckman, who was nice enough to lend me this one along with the FED-2 that I previously reviewed. I don’t call this camera the Contax copy. I like to call it… Continue reading Kiev 4A – A Contax Clone
The FED factory, located in the Soviet Ukraine, started creating Leica copies in the 1930’s. This was after the Soviet Union stopped importation of photographic equipment. The history of the factory leaves you with a bit of goose bumps, and not just for the poor orphans that worked there. FED was named for the initials… Continue reading The Fed-2 – A Soviet Leica
In 1968, the KMZ plant (Krasnogorski Mekhanicheskii Zavod – Mechanical Factory of Krasnogorsk) located just outside of Moscow, created an SLR called the Zenit B, and more than half a million were produced between 1968-1973. In Russian it is Зени́т B, and when translated to English it’s Zenit-V. Zenit meaning Zenith, a point in the sky that… Continue reading The Zenit B – An SLR from the USSR
My next guest from the film photography community is someone who you may already know. He has been somewhat of a mentor to me when it comes to blogging about vintage cameras. If you love vintage cameras and haven’t heard of the man with an encyclopedic knowledge of cameras and their history, Mike Eckman is… Continue reading Snapshot of the Film Community – A Chat with Mike Eckman
