Zenit with 39mm lens thread

[dhbebb]

<p><em>That Telenar may be for a Braun Paxette. I don't know whether the film-to-flange distance will be right for a Zenit. It would be good to hear whether it focuses reasonably!</em><br>

Looks as if it doesn't :):<br>

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Paxette</p>

[Ian Rance]

<p>I now have the camera and 3 lenses. The lenses are a silver 1960 Mir-1 37mm f/2.8, a silver Helios 58mm f/2 and the 90mm - which does not hit infinity so was for the Paxette. It gets to about 20 feet so will do for portraits. The whole lot was a tenner so not breaking the bank. Sadly the second curtain is gummy so picture taking is off the cards.</p>

<p>The store has a range of Paxettes so I may add one if needed to go with the 90mm.</p>

[User_4525289]

<p>what is a number on camera? Helios could be a performer. It is not the original lenses. Mir is good. May have a Brussels 58 gold medal marking on it.</p>

[Ian Rance]

<p>Camera is 60009519 and yes, the 37mm has the Brussels 1958 marking. The camera says 'made in USSR' on the back. I will take a photo of it tomorrow and add here.</p>

[User_4525289]

<p>Zenit-1 last production year is 1956. You most likely got Zenit-C, but if the letter C is missed and the flash contact is present is rather unique export variant. How is it spell on the front plate Latin or Cyrillic? Zenit or Zenith?</p>

[winfried_buechsenschuetz1]

<p>The Roeschlein Telenar was made for the Braun Paxette. It has 39mm thread and rangefinder coupling but the lens register is NOT compatible with LTM. On the other hand, since the Paxette has a leaf shutter, it needs a longer lens register and it is very similar to the lens register of the 39mm Zenith. I once met a guy who uses Paxette lenses on Zenits. When stopped down, the (back-focal) DOF is big enough to cover the small difference between Paxette and 39mm Zenit lens register. </p>

[Alan Johnson]

<p>If you have a Zenit 3M (1962-70),with the 50mm Industar it's very compact and sold alongside the M42 Zenit E etc for a long time.Mine has worked without any problems, excepting it's a bit basic.</p><div></div>

[dhbebb]

<p><em> I once met a guy who uses Paxette lenses on Zenits. When stopped down, the (back-focal) DOF is big enough to cover the small difference between Paxette and 39mm Zenit lens register.</em><br>

Don't understand this - if a lens will focus on the focusing screen, it will give a sharp picture, If you put a lens on a body with too short a register, all that will happen is that it will focus from beyond infinity to not as close as normal.</p>

[winfried_buechsenschuetz1]

<p>Well, I did not try it myself, but this guy told me that the Paxette lens register is just a tad shorter than the Zenith M39 lens register. </p>

[dhbebb]

<p><em>Well, I did not try it myself, but this guy told me that the Paxette lens register is just a tad shorter than the Zenith M39 lens register.</em><br>

If this is the case, i.e the Zenith M39 body is too fat, then it might well be that Paxette lenses need stopping down to squeeze sharpness out of them at infinity. I thought you meant the other way round :).</p>

[winfried_buechsenschuetz1]

<p>Oops, I thought in my phrase <em>" I once met a guy who uses Paxette lenses on Zenits. When stopped down, etc"</em> it was clear that "stopped down" refers to the Paxette lenses. <br>

Also, lenses with M39 Zenith mount are hard to find even over here in Europe/Germany, Paxette lenses are much easier to find (the Paxette was referred to as "poor man's Leica" back then - or even as "schoolteachers' Leica", since teachers were not very well paid back in the 50s). So there is no reason to use Zenith M39 lenses on Paxettes, although this would be possible. </p>

 

[brett_rogers]

<p>This topic is great timing for me. Yesterday at a local market I acquired a Zenit 3M with a black Helios 58mm f/2. I had assumed it would be M42 but as I had the Praktica FX with me I tried to mount the lens and quickly discovered it would not fit. But I decided to purchase it anyway because the price was right, the Helios is a well known lens, and I figured I could use it on M42 with an adapter (or even just use it with the Zenit). It came in what I assume is its original black leather ever ready case replete with a little chrome trim.<br /><br />First impressions of the 3M seem promising. It's easy to load, handles OK and it certainly gives at least the impression of being solidly built (whether this is in fact really true I don't profess to know). I love the way that setting the timer will see the mechanism fire the mirror, whilst not immediately after depressing the release, at least a couple of seconds prior to the shutter opening. That's pretty sophisticated for a 1960s Soviet design I reckon.<br /><br />It still seems to be working well enough. I've fired the shutter through all the speeds several times in front of a TV set. They all seem to be in the ballpark, and a ground glass over the film rails indicate the focus screen and the film plane agree nicely at distance and close range. I'm not entirely sure the shutter isn't capping just a little on the faster speeds, but if so, I don't think it is too bad, so I put a roll of Pan F Plus in it this morning, because after acquiring a later version of the Helios with a number of issues I'm keen to finally try one out.<br /><br />Incidentally, it was a bit of a mystery initially. Rather than being labelled a Zenit, the camera is simply called a "Global". Some investigations reveal that the Zenit 3M cameras sold in Australia were marketed under the name Global. The following web page has a photograph (at the bottom of the page) of a "Global" 3M that looks identical to my purchase.<br /><a href="http://www.sovietcams.com/index.php?-2070516641">http://www.sovietcams.com/index.php?-2070516641</a><br /><br />Does anyone have any words of wisdom to offer about the pros and cons of procuring a M42 mount to M39 lens adapter? There are several listed on ebay. I gather that by going to a larger lens mount, infinity focus can be maintained fitted to an M42 body. Being a pre set lens, it would be a great match for my FX, which awaits the dollars I need treat it to a Biotar eventually.</p>

[Ian Rance]

<p>Sorry for the update delay but I have took the Zenit back to swap for a working Zenit C. I attach a photo below of my new kit.<br>

Brett, I wish I had some words of wisdom but I am still struggling myself. I think this gear is worth the effort though as there is nothing like it these days.</p>

<div></div>

[brett_rogers]

<p>That's quite OK, <strong>Ian</strong>, I ordered an M39-M42 camera adapter for the princely sum of AUD$2.99 so we'll see how that goes in due course. That's a beautiful looking kit you have there, and very nicely captured too, I might add. I've put a film in my 3M so I will run off at least a few shots with it to assess its operation. I do quite a bit of photography with other SLRs like my various Contaflex models or a Hasselblad, none of which feature an instant return mirror, so the 3Ms lack of frills won't be too much of a stretch for me.</p>