A 35mm rangefinder system created on the basis of pre-WW2 LEITZ developments and produced by the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant (USSR). The choice of these particular developments as a prototype was most likely due to the fact that LEICA cameras were one of the most popular 35mm cameras at that time.
A copy of LEICA camera, the FED, began to be produced in 1934 in Kharkov (Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the USSR) at the plant of the labor commune named after Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (later the Kharkov Machine-Building Plant "FED"). At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (1941), production was evacuated from Kharkov and the technical documentation for the camera was transferred to the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant (KMZ).
THE CAMERAS:
THE FIRST GENERATION (separate viewfinder and rangefinder, bottom loading)
THE SECOND GENERATION (combined viewfinder/rangefinder, extended range of shutter speeds, rear loading)
THE THIRD GENERATION (combined viewfinder/rangefinder, bottom loading)
THE FOURTH GENERATION (combined viewfinder/rangefinder, extended range of shutter speeds, rear loading)
THE LENSES:
The range of lenses produced for Zorki cameras partially coincides with the range for Kiev-II/III/4 cameras produced by the Arsenal Plant (Kiev, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the USSR): a number of models were available in versions with the CONTAX bayonet mount or LEICA screw mount.
No dedicated lenses for architectural photography with perspective correction, professional macrophotography.
Copyright © 2012-2024 Evgenii Artemov. All rights reserved. Translation and/or reproduction of website materials in any form, including the Internet, is prohibited without the express written permission of the website owner.