Sunday, 6 May 2012

Zenit 11 : Camera review and test photos

I am not any camera expert but I decided to do a little review on Zenit 11.
I got the camera with 5 lenses and couple of other things in a brown leather box from the old camera market in Chandi Chowk, Delhi for Indian Rupees 5000 (around USD $100)! Quite a deal! The camera and the lenses were in pristine condition without any use marks or dust or fungus. I guess the previous owner hardly used it.



The stuffs that came in the box are: 

Zenit 11 Camera

SOLIGOR AUTO-ZOOM 1:4.5 F=75mm-260mm lens
HELIOS AUTO 1:2.8 f=135mm lens
HELIOS-44-2 2/58 lens
HELIOS-44M-4 58/2 lens
PENTACON auto 1.8/50 MULTI COATING lens
M42 Macro extension 3 rings tube set

67mm lens hood
52mm lens hood
49mm lens hood

Cokin 49mm mm kit with A.061, A 056 and 58 mesh filters.

Above all in pristine condition. Quite deal for Rs.5000!
Getting into the bit of history behind Zenit 11, it was produced from 1981 through 1990 by KMZ and MMZ in Russia. Zenit 11 is the last of E series of Zenit cameras. 

I don’t have much experience in film SLRs having my Canon 40D and Olympus EPL2 and couple of other electronic toy cameras. This is my first film SLR camera and I think that Zenit 11 is a pretty little robust camera. The camera has black glossy finish and on hold feels heavy and metallic. The ergonomics are neat and the camera is quite pretty to look at. The buttons are placed where they should without any obstruction. It is coupled with a selenium meter which works perfectly fine. The shutter speed varied from B, 1/30, 1/60, 1/125, 1/1250, 1/500. It has 50, 100, 200, 400 and 500 ASA (ISO) film speeds. The camera makes a loud clunky sound when clicking pictures. I got the camera in April 2012 and it has not been even one month but I see slight paint loss already on the camera. 

I took few photos with the lenses and realized that it needs lens hood/ FDL/ ND filters on the lens because the strong Indian sunlight leaves a white smoke like lens flare on the photos when taken towards bright sky. Also in almost all the photos the sky usually came over exposed. 
I used 2 rolls on the camera- Kodak ISO 200 and Kodak ISO 400 and didn’t know any better while taking photos. Even though it has a selenium meter, in indoors the meter hardly works so taking photos was solely intuitive. I did some search online and learnt about Sunny 16 rules and tried applying it. I felt that the lens focused much better outdoor than indoors. The reasons could be many- such as my first time shooting, my eye sight, not knowing from A to B initially, lens, etc. It will take me couple of more clicks to actually know how the camera and the lens work and understand their strength and drawbacks. 
I got the negatives developed and scanned and was super excited with the result. At first I was actually happy that the photos even showed! I was afraid that the roles were all blank… After my initial excitement waned, I actually saw the photos in a new light. The photos are less saturated and being a digital user I thought it could do better with the colour saturation and contrast but the again it could be various reasons- the film roll or the way it was processed and scanned. Also the photos were exceptionally sharp on few photos and soft on others which again could be because of various reasons. I don't mind the soft pictures, in fact I've learnt to love it in a different way. 
Over all I am in love with Zenit 11 at the moment and the lenses. The 5 lenses are also quite an addition to my Olympus PEN EPL2.
I am a happy owner. 

Last March I went to Delhi for some personal work with my family helper Tulsi. So after getting the camera and the lens we went around shooting in District Park and these are the photos from there...





Pekinese name: Milan. Unsharp and photo which was hard to focus in the dim light



I set my aperture to 8 and focused to infinity/ 30 and shutter speed to 250-500 with ISO 400 Kodak roll to just point and shoot in Chandni Chowk.




































































11 comments:

  1. Damn! Envy for the kit, really great looking and that red inside the box is droolworthy!!

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    Replies
    1. :) Yes it is...thanks... Next photos will better.

      Delete
  2. I bought the same camera recently but I have no idea how to set it up for photos.
    All I understand so far is how to focus, set shutter speed and set the apeture

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Wilson, Sorry for a very late reply...
      You'll learn it eventually... For this first you have to know about ISO/ ASA speed, shutter and aperture... Do do some reading on it and also there are many tutorials online... As you can see from the photos (since it was my first time handling Zenit 11 and an SLR), I am also only learning... I have lot of technical faults in the photos above but since I took those photos, I have a fair idea where to work on...
      When you use your camera, you'll learn via trial and errors too...
      All the best! :)

      Delete
  3. These are great! I came upon this page when I was looking for instructions on how to use the Zenit 11. A friend recently sent one to me and my initial reaction is that it has "too many knobs". It looks so overwhelming that it's been quite a while since I have this but didn't do any test shots yet! I'm inspired to try it now after looking at your set! Thank you for posting this! :)

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    Replies
    1. Glad you decided to use your camera. Zenit 11 was my first film SLR and after that I acquired quite a few... It is for now lying on my shelf and reading your comment, I feel like running a film roll through it! Looking at these photos now, I realize that I am still a newbie and miles to go in Film Photography.
      I've seen your film photos and they are just so lovely and inspiring. There is no reasons why you shouldn't start using Zenit 11. Cheers!

      Delete
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