Unprove Suspicions about the Soviet Camera Industr

I have been suspicious for a while that the Soviet Pkoto Industry was about to introduce a whole series of new lenses and cameras just as they collapsed.

Examples: FS-5 photosniper, Zenit AM, Zenit AN, Kiev-18

lenses in catalogs but never seen: Mir-61K, Volna-10K, Volna-9K macro, Fodis-1K, APO Telezenitar-K,MC Zenitar-K 1.4/85, MC Telezenitar-M 2.8/135, MC ZM-7K, MC Yantar-14H, MC Yantar-20H. My MC Oberon-11K may also fit the category although it saw pilot production at least.

Opinions anyone?

Well FS-5 does exist and was produced, I think Aidas was telling me that he saw one. Zenit AM - I'm not sure why you put that on the list, it sits happily on my shelf and I think a few other collectors' here as well...

You also forgot to mention the FED 6TTL, FED 7 and the whole Almaz fiasco :)))

The collapse of USSR, the Perestroika and the start of privatization had led to an utter chaos in factories and organizations.. a lot of stuff had been scrapped and reorganized (although it took many years).. FED has dropped all of camera production, so did mostly BelOMO. KMZ tried to do the same although the Horizon line seemed to generate much revenue so I guess they decided to keep going with it.. plus I think they started to seriously compete on the market with the lenses, since they world discovered the excellence Russian optic quality for a bargain price so they've kept going on those as well... and Lomo... I'm even embarrassed to mention them... the great GOMZ, succumbed to be - pardon my French (no offense Alain, Michel, Jacques [:)]) - a bitch to a Lomographic society [:)], well I guess you don't pick and choose paying customers... it did turn out to be quite a gold mine for them... I just hope they do decide to come up with something new at some point and stop just refurbishing 1980s cameras... sorry for the rant [:)]... just wishing for the fallen giants to get back up. I wonder how many original camera engineers were left on these factories?

I should have been a little clearer on the Automat AM, AM-2 they definately exist, but what about the AN, AP and APK?

I also know that apparently just before everything collapsed a whole bunch of new items were sold in South Africa.

The AN and AP were only projects as far as I understand, I think (not sure, I'm sure Zoom can probably correct me) AP became APK as a production model (with K-Mount added) and was widely produced, I do posses one of those as well.. they are uncommon but not very hard to find..

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by nathandayton</i>
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Examples: ... Zenit AN ...
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"Zenit AN"? This project was never exist. Must be: "Zenit-AP".
See http://www.zenitcamera.com/catalog/cameralist-eng.html

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by nathandayton</i>
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but what about the AN, AP and APK?
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It was no problem to buy APK...

See http://www.zenitcamera.com/catalog/cameraproduction.html

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by nathandayton</i>
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...lenses in catalogs but never seen: ... APO Telezenitar-K,MC Zenitar-K 1.4/85, MC Telezenitar-M 2.8/135 ... My MC Oberon-11K may also fit the category although it saw pilot production at least.
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APO Telezenitar-K (you mean 4.5/300?) -- was produced.
APO Telezenitar-M 2.8/135 -- was produced.
Zenitar-K 1.4/85 -- yes, was build in a too small quantity...
MC Oberon-11K -- was produced by VOMZ.

I have owned several APK. Now mine is NIB.
My friend here has FS-5 and I have held it in my hands. Picture in my website.
And I did possess MC Yantar-20K but sold/traded it to France IIRC?

The Kiev-18 is a legend. There has been several models named Kiev-18 but the best known one is the one in the brochure (see Wiki). Yet I believe it was like Almaz (other than the produced 103) only something in the papers and a few model cameras to show and brag. Look, USSR is not falling apart, we can beat western countries even in camera design! Has anyone ever seen a metered Almaz that works electronically? I have not heard about one yet...

Smena rules

Can anyone confirm the existence of the 3M-7K f5.6/300 mirror lens?

hi all friends,
the Juani's YANTAR is in my home now ..thanks to him : very sharp lense on my EOS 5D !
Oberon 11K stay also on my shelves whith companions :

APO 135mm Tele zenitar M
APO 4.5/300 Tele zenitar K....

So , (sorry was only in French), I published some pages about Almaz 's story ( note : my Almaz 101 is someting like an empty shell !)....i never imagine a so stupid technical and trading story [V] !!!

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by nathandayton</i>
<br />Can anyone confirm the existence of the 3M-7K f5.6/300 mirror lens?
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ZM, not 3M... ;) (ZM == Zerkalno-Meniskovyj, reflecting meniscus), see also (sorry, all in Russian):
http://www.zenitcamera.com/archive/history/marks.html#zm

And this document:
http://www.zenitcamera.com/archive/misc/counsil-solution-1987.html

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by nathandayton</i>
<br />Can anyone confirm the existence of the 3M-7K f5.6/300 mirror lens?

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Dear nathan,

Yes, I have one.[:D] s/n 930490.It is a very sharp and contrasty lens.

I too own an APO -MC 135mm F2.8 Tele-Zenitar, NIB.

Steve

What is APO?? I hear APO Lanthar, etc... what does it stand for?

Vlad

That;s a lens which is corrected for chromatic aberrations in all 3 primary colors.

Steve

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Vlad</i>
<br />What is APO?? I hear APO Lanthar, etc... what does it stand for?
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Apochromatic lenses.
See (in Russian) http://www.zenitcamera.com/qa/qa-indexes.html#apo

Thank you both for the explanation!

But going back to original Nathan's question, in instance of KMZ - question to Zoom I guess - what particular projects were scrapped because of the whole restructuring thing after perestroika? Is there any kind of historical documents about that? For instance on Arsenal factory I know for a fact from a conversation with a photographer whose friend worked there that the situation was so bad that they paid their workers in Kiev cameras instead of salary (he would get a brand new Kiev on his every birthday from that friend of his [:)])..

what kind of situation was on KMZ? Was it a little better due to proximity to Moscow? Was is a rough transition? What percentage of original camera engineers you think were retained until the things were more or less stabilized in Russia?

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Vlad</i>
<br />I guess - what particular projects were scrapped because of the whole restructuring thing after perestroika?
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As you know, the Soviet industry was a planned industry. Plans (sometimes not factory, but ministerial) were published in press, pre-production models were shown at exhibitions. But not all plans were realized (anywhere, not only in Russia ;)...
Rules were a little bit others not similar on a present capitalist marketing.

At second: what time you mean "after Perestroika"? "Perestroika" time it was only two or three years (from 1987)...
Or you mean a time from 1992 year, after the Soviet Union disintegration?..
The most complex years were: 1997--1998.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Vlad</i>
<br />What percentage of original camera engineers you think were retained until the things were more or less stabilized in Russia?
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Now: zero (after a stabilisation).