Russian camera manufacturer Zenit has announced the release of four new manual full-frame prime lenses that they first revealed last year: the Zenitar 35mm f/2, 50mm f/1.5, 58mm f/1.9, and 60mm f/2.8 Macro.
Photographer Mathieu Stern was browsing a flea market when he came across a Zenit Fotosnaiper, a Soviet-era camera rig that looks and feels more like a rifle. Stern jumped at the opportunity to have a copy of his own and to go hands-on with the camera.
The Zenit-M camera first announced over a year ago is finally available to purchase in the US. The full-frame M-Mount rangefinder, which was created in collaboration with Leica, is very similar to the Leica M (Typ 240)... and it has a price to match.
The Russian camera brand Zenit has announced a new full-frame "mirrorless" camera. Called the Zenit M, it's a rangefinder based on the Leica M (Type 240) created in collaboration with Leica.
We've seen Soviet spy cameras disguised as everything from a gold ring to a pack of cigarettes, but this recently auction Soviet spy camera was disguised as... a camera.
Iranian photographer Alireza Rostami has been studying and tinkering with lenses for years, and a few years ago he made a discovery: by reversing one of the elements in a vintage lens, he found himself with a lens that produced beautiful and unusual "magic" bokeh.
The iconic Russian camera brand Zenit caused a flurry of excitement back in February 2016 after it announced that it's relaunching in 2018 with a full frame mirrorless camera that rivals Leica in luxury. But the camera may do more than rival Leica... It may actually be a Leica at its core -- a rebranded Leica SL.
Guess who's getting ready to jump into the mirrorless camera race? The Russian camera maker Zenit. After years of dormancy, the brand is coming back to life and will reportedly be launching a new full-frame mirrorless digital camera in 2018.
Several years ago, I bought an old Soviet camera that I found in a London flea market. It cost me £4, so every time I put a roll of film in the camera, it multiplies its cost.
In the 1970s and 1980s, photographers on a budget had help from an unlikely corner. While the West may have faced occasionally tense stand-offs against the Eastern Bloc, two of the Communist world’s biggest camera makers made millions of cameras that helped amateur shutterbugs get on the first rung of proper picture-taking.
News broke back in February that Russian camera manufacturer Zenit was going to come back and take on Leica in the luxury camera market. But the first Zenit products to see the light of day aren't cameras, it's three very fast KMZ/Zenit lenses: the Zenitar 50mm f/0.95, 50mm f/1.2, and 85mm f/1.2.
Leica, watch your back: you have a competitor in the horizon. The iconic Zenit Soviet camera brand is coming back... as a luxury camera brand.
Lomography just brought another classic lens design back from the dead. Today the company announced its new Jupiter 3+ 50mm f/1.5 lens for L39 and M mount rangefinders.
It's "a bold, beautiful, and brimming-with-bokeh resurrection from the zenith of Russian optical design," Lomo says.
Back in June, Lomography raised nearly $1 million on Kickstarter to launch its new Petzval 58 Bokeh Control lens. It's a lens that takes a classic design and adds a new twist: a bokeh control ring for adjusting the look of out-of-focus areas in your shots.
Today we have some exclusive behind-the-scenes photos of how Lomography's Petzval lenses are manufactured by the skilled optical technicians at the Zenit factory in Russia.
Lomography's already has some experience partnering with Russian lens manufacturers. And given how successful the Zenit partnership and Lomo's recreation of the Petzval lens has been, they've decided to do it again, this time with the Russar+.
Greek silkscreen printer Manolis Angelakis was recently tasked with designing a new set of business cards for close friend and photographer Alexandra Stamopoulou. Given her profession, he decided to create a stylish card that emulates the viewfinder of an old Zenit camera. The simple but effective design was silkscreened onto sheets of transparent vinyl.
This camera rig might not be the best to bring to a public photo shoot.