Todd Stanley at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Anyone have any comments on these beasts?
I surely do! Years ago, when Pontius was still a pilot, my first SLR was a
Zenit B, and I loved it. The camera was very solid in the hand and worked
well for me for a few years. (I must have had a good one!) Its controls were
few and rudimentary, to put it politely, the focusing screen was far too
small and, as a result, the image in the viewfinder was peculiar in its
proportions, and it had all the subtlety of a tractor from the 1930s. But
it _did_ work, and its 58mm f2 Helios lens was wonderful. (A clone of the
Zeiss 58/2 Biotar.) It was sharp, of medium contrast and delivered results
full of detail. A real cracker of a lens!
The downside: when it stopped working, it did so in a rather catastrophic
manner, in embarrassing circumstances (I will spare you the details) and I
parted with it, with a tear in the eye nevertheless, and the lens remained
in my memory.
Cut to twenty-five or more years later.
In my friendly neighbourhood photo shop I found one day a Zenit 12XP with a
58/2 Helios lens, and I bought it on the spot, with a Carl Zeiss Jena
135/3.5 in addition. I bought them both without a further thought, in part
so as to use once more the Meyer Lydith 30/3.5 pre-set diaphragm lens that I
had kept since my previous M42 existence. The Lydith, IMNSHO, is a much
under-rated hero of lens history. Anyway, the camera works in the same
manner as my old Zenit B (but with FAD now), it seems still to be made out
of surplus tractor parts, and I do not trust the TTL meter. BUT the 58/2
Helios is wonderful, just as I remembered it, and the camera serves as a
second body to my Spotmatic (Pentax relevance at last!).
(By the way, the CZJ 135 is also wonderful: medium contrast, very sharp and
resolving tremendous detail -- a development of the 135/4 Sonnar, I believe.
A very impressive lens in a gently restrained way.)
So, I conclude that a Zenit is worth buying _if the price is right_. It's a
remnant of a former era, it is perhaps a little eccentric in its manners,
but it's fun!
Hope this helps.
Best wishes to all.
Ted Bradshaw.
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