Zenit by KMZ, is a Soviet (USSR) camera brand manufactured by KMZ (Krasnogorski Mechanicheskii Zavod) in the town of Krasnogorsk near Moscow since 1952 and by BelOMO in Belarus since the 1970s.
The Soviet manufacturer produced several dozen cameras and lenses. Personally, I’m interested in photographic lenses, which were often sold and produced with various cameras.
The photographic lenses I’m most interested in at the moment are part of the Helios (Гелиос) collection. Produced by KMZ.
Helios (Гелиос) is a range of camera lenses made in the USSR by several makers including KMZ, MMZ and Valdai. They were made for use with Zenit SLR cameras.
The earliest have an M39 mount (the same thread as the Leica mount, but with a different flange-film distance). Later lenses have an M42 mount, and can be used with many more cameras..
The Helios-40 and Helios-44 and are derivatives of the Carl Zeiss Biotar optical formula; the Helios-44 has a strong aberration at the margins, resulting in a characteristic ‘swirl’ which is reminiscent of Petzval lenses.
Zenit ET is a 35mm film SLR camera manufactured by Vileiskiy Zavod Zenit, (Vileiskiy Plant Zenit), near Minsk, former USSR, produced between 1982-1993 with a quantity 3.000,000.
Зенит = Zenit, which means Zenith that is the point in the sky that appears directly above the observer in astronomy or may mean the highest point.
Example opposite, NEVER tested and therefore I don’t know if it works. Purchased in December 2022 at a local stall.
This page dedicated to HELIOS series lenses will be updated from time to time. Hoping to be able to acquire new interesting photographic lenses from this series.
