The Zenit-E camera is the most popular Soviet SLR camera.. And Zenit-E is the most inexpensive of the entire Zenith line.

Like this, straight off the bat. Well, how else can you get your attention with a film camera, which began to produce more 50 years ago. Yes, the first Zenit-E was released already in 1965 year.

This camera has become a real breakthrough in amateur photography.. It was not about the quality of the pictures or some special camera characteristics.. It was about the price.. And the price mattered. Here, think about 1965 salary of a young specialist, come to production, was 120-135 rubles, and the SLR cost more 100 rubles.

for example, Zenit-EM camera cost 140 rubles, and Zenit TTL more 300 rubles. I.e, the camera cost more than two salaries of a young specialist. But it is always young people who buy new technological things.. In the USSR, there were problems with this and young people had to be content with Changes, Viliya or LOMO or hope so, that parents will take pity and give a camera.

And now KMZ releases a DSLR, which is worth everything 77 rubles. Yes, Industar-2 lens with aperture 3,5 not the best, but not too bad.

77 rubles - this is already something, and if you take into account, that the young specialist lived in a hostel or with his parents, the 77-80 rubles is not critical - for food 35 rubles a month could be enough, if you tighten up. In extreme cases, there were mutual aid funds and it was possible to get by before the salary.

And this affected sales - more were sold 7 million copies. The camera was released before 86 years - exactly 20 years old. So why was Zenit-E so good.

Basically, everyone. The camera had a built-in selenium exposure meter, which works on some samples even now. The camera mechanism itself was simple and reliable.. The perfect entry-level DSLR. Of course, there were disadvantages, but we look at the price and we can already put up with them.

You can watch my video in Zen, where I talk about the camera and choosing a location and maybe you like the conversational version better.

by the way, this camera was popular not only in the USSR, but also abroad. Due to the low price, he had no competitors. Of course, Soviet optics was worse, than German, and excerpts of everything 1/500, but value for money was great, and the camera is very reliable.

Well, what about today? And today the camera remains quite relevant among film lovers, and again because of the price and quality..

The camera can be bought in good condition for 1500-2000 rubles with Helios lens. With Industar it's even cheaper. I got the camera for just 500 rubles, but with a few problems, which, truth, did not affect the quality of the images and did not affect the shooting process at all.

I bought this camera just for testing.. thought, what a DSLR, with the inability to adjust the viewfinder to my vision, won't suit me. But it turned out, what to shoot landscapes, street and architecture, the camera is good for me. Because I can see well in the distance, then the inability to adjust the viewfinder did not really affect the shooting and the quality of the pictures.

Yes, by the way, about focusing. Before that, I used the rangefinder FED-3 and it had the ability to adjust the viewfinder to my vision. Sighting and sharpening in the rangefinder occurs through its windows, and in the mirror Zenith through the lens.

Basically, if you have farsightedness and up close you can only see something with glasses, then don't take them off, when you pick up a mirror, to take a close-up or macro. If you are shooting a landscape and the distance to the subject is greater 3 m, then there are no problems and glasses can be left in the bag. I have, anyway, exactly.

Now about the test shooting:

For the test, I chose the Center of Moscow and Zaryadye Park. Perfect place, where you can find everything - and landscapes, and architecture, and people.

Well, here's what I got:

Examples of photographs taken with a Zenit-E camera