Zenit-66 from Mirfoto Camera Book

... and one more camera [:)][:)][:)] I have already told you how many interesting cameras will be introduced in Viktor Suglob's and Sergey Kochergin's book. I've got a permission to publish only few of them, but there are hundreds more ... I can't say precisely when this "Project of the Century" will enter collector's market, but the possible date could be the beginning of 2009, at least I hope so ...

http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/zenit-66_prototype.jpg

http://www.ussrphoto.com/UserContent/zenit-66_prototype.jpg

Best Regards,
Aidas

Sooo much awaiting for it as you know!
Thanks for the teasers!

Smena rules

what will be very interesting question is :

why so much prototypes in Bielorussia ? and even how and when Viktor got them (if not tactless...[:)])

it will be a piece of FSU camera's history...(it is only my opinion)

you know , my friend Jacques Daniel ,in France have the same since a long time (I will ask him, where and how he got it...)
the only difference is "66" printed on prism. I had this camera in my hands , the question is : why did they made it a little strenght body ??

Very nice Aidas! Thanks for sharing these! Can these be added to our catalog with Viktor's permission?

Thanks,
Vlad

Vlad,

sure, you can add these cameras to our catalog ... [:)]

Alain,

it's not so easy to answer your question indeed. Viktor has great own collection with many prototypes (like you do ... [:)][:)][:)]). But we can say for sure, it's almost impossible to prepare a good book, based on single collection only. So he and his team did a great job to collect as much material about FSU cameras as possible. Many of us were asked to share our knowledge and information about cameras we possess. Beeing very communicate person himself, Viktor have attended a lot of camera collectors in Russia, Ukraine, etc. He had great contacts with creators of well-known soviet cameras, soviet museum's staff and so on ...

All these 3 cameras I have placed in Forums, come from Mirfoto archives, that mean Viktor has no these cameras in his collection indeed ... This material is just collected in one hands, to be issued as classificator lately ...

Best Regards,
Aidas

And eg I know that one finnish seller has sold a lot of very rare cameras to a country known for good wines [;)]

Seriously us neighbour countries had a lot of advantage being this close in the old days. And several wise travellers did invest in cameras when they were available in exchange to nylons and bubble gum [^]

I am not sure if I have told you about my good friend (the one that is now selling slowly away his collection) how he got his? He worked in the finnish army, and thus he travelled a lot in the USSR and pretty freely. He got to know the right shops very early, when there was no competition as all the tourists were poor people from Eastern block or drunken finns [:o)] So later the shops even gathered stuff to him from locals, as he was a good buyer (in their opinion). He still knows a shop where an Almaz-102 or -104 has been collecting dust for years/decades. Unfortunately the price has been too high for us pennystretchers.

And I remember well the soviet tourists coming to my radio shop in early 80ies. All they had to spend when in Finland was 50 euros, which was the price for a double cassette player/recorder to copy music cassettes. So it was regular that I was offered wodka in trade for batteries or cassettes to those crappy stereos, or to cheap walkmans.
Many times even cameras, but what could I do with a dozen Zenit E's? And back then no information was available of what was rare so I certainly did miss something I would now regret [V]
But I did buy many 6x6 outfits, for small pocket money in my scale [}:)]

hey hey hey...Cedric fan...would you check good wines in the future ???? you welcome home as you know....[}:)]

alain

PS :

According whith Confucius : " wine is better than Vodka to be well advised, in collecting FSU cameras [:D]"

Which were the technical novelties presented on Zenit 66 ?
Hey Zoom! Confirm and complement!
1) The first one was the introduction or a flash mirror once presented on the Kristall 2 prototypes and used on all following Zenit cameras.
2) The second was the adoption of an integral pentaprism and screen in inclined form much like the original Contax S, making the top much more compact.This solution was done in order not to gather dirt in the vie finder area, making it more comfortable to observation.
3) The third was the elimination of the traction sprocket in the unit making thus this camera still shorter and more compact. This solution was further used on KMZ vertical running shutter Zenit 15 and 16 .
4) Finally the definitive adoption of the M42 threaded lenses. (there were also made some M39 mount cameras).
LP

hey Luis,
be patient..
I asked to Jacques Daniel about his camera (hard work to get it , lost in thousands cameras batch !!!!) and then i can open it and make pictures inside bodu ASAP. Promished [:)]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Luiz Paracampo</i>
<br />Which were the technical novelties presented on Zenit 66 ?
Hey Zoom! Confirm and complement!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Sorry, Luiz. I know this camera only from the Princelle's book...
Of cource, no reasons to doubt this camera existence, but there is no data about it now... :(