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I am an Soviet and Russian camera collector residing in State of Illinois, USA. I have only somewhat recently started collecting (since May 2007) these fine examples of Soviet and Russian mechanical engineering and design that until late 80s have been closed off to the rest of the world. Now that these cameras have come to light, I want to share them with all of you. Recently I have decided to start cataloging Soviet and Russian cameras online, thus the USSRPhoto.com project was born, which is a Wiki catalog of Russian and Soviet cameras.
Vlad's Soviet/Russian Photographic Equipment Collection

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Zenit 122 50 Years KMZ Special Edition

Vlad's Description
Body Serial #:
Lens Serial #:

Wiki Catalog Entry

To commemorate its 50th anniversary, KMZ issued a special edition of Zenit-122 camera in 1992. Camera comes in titanium grey ABS plastic with gold silkscreened inscriptions. Even a serial numbers has special markings - its prefixed by the anniversary number "50". Camera bottom is signed "Made in Russia".

The KMZ website states that between 1989 and 2005 there were 1,971,745 Zenit-122 cameras made! There is some controversy as to how many of these Special Edition cameras were produced. The serial numbers on this edition always start with "5092xxxx". A good KMZ source states that there were 6,541 of these cameras made between 1992 and 1994, but many doubt this as these cameras do not show up in collections or on the marketplace very often and are considered quite rare. Other numbers like "only 300 cameras" are stated by some collectors.
Partly this is true, as according to KMZ only a series of 300 cameras was made in 1992, and the rest is later 1993/1994 production, after 50y anniversary! Boxed camera shown in picture is export version, serial number 50 92 0415 so something is wrong with the numbers unless they start from other than zero?

Images 3 through 8 are of the original 1992 model (of the 300 made in that year)

#50920001-50920300 first batch (must be) 1992, gift items with different packaging and user manuals (even English and French variants)

#50921001-50927000 second batch 1993

#50928000-50928250 production 1994

Titanium Zenit-122 50th Anniversary Serial Numbers


# 92316563 Vladislav Kern Collection
# 50920415 lens - # 92562130 Helios 44M-6 (Juhani Halmeenmaki collection)

# 50921573 lens - # 928769 Helios 77M-4 (Francesco)
# 50922670 lens - # 93298293 Helios 44M-6 (Sean Smith collection)
# 50922704 lens - # 93289857 Helios-44M-6 (okynek)
# 50923326 lens - # 984006 MC Zenitar-M2 (SovietCams collection)
# 50923533 lens - # 93219371 Helios 44M-6 (Tom Tiger collection)
# 50923558 lens - # 87017834 MIR 1-b (Bill Parkinson collection)
# 50923660 lens - # 91488802 Helios 44M-6 (SovietCams collection)
# 50924023 lens - # 8012301 Helios 44M (Michel's coll.)

# 50924193 lens - # 92039911 Helios 44M (A.Nikitin Collection)
# 50924892 lens - # 93178377 Helios 44 (Alain Berry Collection)

# 50924979 body only (for sale in Finland)

# 50925117 lens - # 90072043 Helios 44M-4 (AlexPhoto on Ebay 2007)
# 50925123 lens - # 93281843 Helios 44M-6 (Bill Parkinson collection)
# 50925693 lens - Helios 44M-6 (Illustrated in Princelle Book)

# 50926455 lens - # 91051309 Zenitar-M 1,9/50 (Omega collection)
# 50926482 lens - # 89182898 Helios 44M-4 (Bill Parkinson collection)

# 50926929 lens - # 9339252 Helios 44M-6 (regipix, UK)
# 50926935 lens - # 91159562 Helios 44M-6 (Mirfoto collection)
# 50927114 lens - # 93387490 Helios 44M-6 (David Tomlinson)
# 50928004 lens - # 93357880 Helios 44M-6 (Steve Berkowitz collection)

Wiki Catalog Images


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