Through my lens: HELIOS-44-2 2/58

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...