Zenit 3m user manual

The camera was equipped with an Industar 3. Both lenses take great photos, especially considering the low price. The Industar is designed according to the Tessar optical scheme, which means that photographs taken with this lens will be very sharp and contrasting. And the Helios is designed according to the Planar scheme, which means the image taken with this lens will be very voluminous, and the bokeh will be fabulously beautiful.

For the very first cameras, this set of shutter speeds was decent, but in the mids, it was a rather weak set of shutter speeds. The camera also had a wired flash sync port and a self-timer, which means you can take selfies and take photos with a flash using the Zenit-3M. As before, the camera has a fairly good viewfinder with high-quality ground glass. As in previous models, the Zenit-3M has a mirror that does not fall into the working position after the shutter is released, that is, you can watch the image in the viewfinder only when the shutter is cocked.

On the one hand, this is inconvenient, but on the other hand, you always know when the shutter is cocked. The camera has a very comfortable film advance lever and a less comfortable rewind knob. In the future, this knob was replaced by a more convenient film rewind crank. Another disadvantage of the camera is the lack of a built-in exposure meter. This somewhat slows down the process of photographing. But then again, this is more of a camera for a fairly leisurely photographing.

In addition, this camera will teach you to work with the film yourself and train your skills in photographing. Figures from to 2 on the exposure time scale show values of the exposure times in fractions of a second and from 1 to 30 show whole seconds. Black figures on the exposure time scale of the calculator correspond to figures of the exposure time dial scale.

The exposure time and the appropriate diaphragm chosen depending on conditions of photographing should be correspondingly set on the camera and on the lens. Slightly pulling up the exposure time dial and turning it round its axis set the selected exposure time figure against the index mark in the middle of the dial, sink the dial and fix it.

The figures on the exposure time dial indicate fractions of a second, and "B" indicates a hand-controlled exposure time. To obtain slow shutter speed you should cock the shutter, set the exposure time dial against "B", press the shutter release button and turn it counterclockwise as far as it goes.

After exposure return the release button to its initial position. Notes: 1. The exposure time can be set both with cocked and released shutter. It is good practice to use a tripod when photographing with slow shutter speed and "B" exposure. When photographing without flash bulbs the synchronization setting lever can be set at will within the range from "X" to "MF" on the side of the film rewind button.

For setting the diaphragm rotate the ring until you hear a slight click. This means that the ring is fixed. Hand exposure "B" is not desirable when using flash bulbs since a considerable amount of stray light after flash gets into the camera and might result in a blurred image on the film. When shooting with self-timer, do the following procedure. Cock the shutter, wind the self-timer mechanism turning the self-timer setting lever down as far as it will go.

Set exposure, choose a frame, focus the lens. Press the self-timer release button and stand in position to be photographed.