Description
ZENIT 3M (Export)
This camera was the successor to the ill-fated Kristall. The Kristall camera got a hinged back like all modern cameras we know. Unfortunately, nobody liked the design of the Kristall, which had hammered paint and ridges on the top of the prism. Some people called it tractorlike. So Kristall stayed only in production for a year and then was replaced by the Zenit-3M. In comparing it to the Zenit-3, it is more modern. They were hinged back instead of the bottom loader. It is smaller than the 3. But its specs are identical.
Produced: 1962-1970
Name: „Зенит-3M“
Producer: KMZ
Frame size: 24×36.
Lens: Industar-50 3.5/50.
Shutter: 1/30s, 1/60s, 1/125s, 1/250s, 1/500s + B.
Quantity: 781.678 units.
It is a part of the long-running Zenit series. The UK export version of this camera doesn’t have the 3M marking on it, only marked Zenit on the front.
The main differences from Zenit-3: the back cover is removable and the new mechanism of cocking lever with shutter release button.
Specifications
Lens release: screw counterclockwise
Lens: Industar-50 (ИНДУСТАР) 50mm f/3.5 filter thread: 49mm (standard lens)
Another standard lens is Helios-44 (ГЕЛИОС) 58mm f/2
Mount: KMZ’s ZM39 screw mount. It looks like the M39 Leica mount, but the rangefinder M39 mount lenses do not work properly on this camera due to the mirror space. You can use them only at the close-up focus range.
Aperture: f/3.5-f/16 setting: ring and scale on the lens
Focus range: 0.65-20m +inf
Focusing: via ground-glass screen, ring and scale on the lens
Shutter: rubberised silk double cloth curtain, horizontal focal plane
Speeds: 1/30-1/500 +B, setting dial on the top plate [2]
Shutter release: on the winding knob, w/ cable release socket
Cocking lever: also wind the film, short stroke, on the right of the top plate
Frame counter: manual reset, additive type, beneath the winding knob
Viewfinder: SLR pentaprism
Mirror: not instant return
Re-wind knob: on the left of the top-plate
Re-wind release: by a small knob, beside the winding lever
Flash PC socket: on front of the camera, X sync 1/30
Cold-shoe
Memory dial: on the re-wind knob
Self-timer: activates by a small knob above it
Back cover: hinged, opens by a latch on the left side of the camera
Tripod socket: 3/8″ Strap lugs Body: metal; Weight: 1366g serial no. on the back of the top plate, first two digits show the production year
This model is from 1968
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