Zenit-12 XP : meter always on

<p>Hi! As an act of randomness, I bought a Zenit-12 XP with Helios-44 58/2.8 lens since the cheap price and heavy, all-metal construction appealed to me. I also thought it would be nice to have a M42 body since I already have some M42 lenses anyway. Now I'm generally been pretty satisfied with the camera body for everyday shooting except for the lack of slow shutter speeds of course, but I knew that already... however there is one problem: The light meter is always on! It drained my fresh batteries in around 3 days which is when I noticed this, though I *think* that at the beginning the meter used to activate only when I half-pressed the shutter release. Any idea how to solve this, is there a known trick (except "remove batteries")? And what is the purpose of the T and V settings on the shutter release button?</p>

 

<p>T is for locking the shutter open for very long exposures if you don't have an off camera release cable.<br>

V is for setting up the time delay.<br>

The little sleeve under the shutter button depresses to let you rewind the film.<br>

manual here <a href="http://www.butkus.org/chinon/russian/zenith_12/zenith_12-xp.pdf">http://www.butkus.org/chinon/russian/zenith_12/zenith_12-xp.pdf</a><br>

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Useful info here as well<br>

<a href="http://www.xs4all.nl/~tomtiger/zenrep/zenquick.html#q6">http://www.xs4all.nl/~tomtiger/zenrep/zenquick.html#q6</a></p>

<p>Toni,<br>

Lightmeter suppose to be activated only if the shutter release is half pressed. In your case you right it is malfunctioning. Possibly contacts are in on position. Most likely they are stick together. Repair is possible but unworthy. You can open camera and try to fix it yourself but if you have not fixed cameras before you most likely break it. Those Zenits are cheap and they are abundant on the market easy to get another one. Albeit XP version is made for export and may be a better quality.</p>

<p>Throw away the battery and use the Sunny 16 rule for exposure or get a light meter. The Helios lens is actually a russian copy of a pre World War 2 Carl Zeiss Biotar 58 f/2.</p>