VERY Rare Zenit-5 ZENIT 5 Russian Soviet SLR camera Vega-3 lens

Description

VERY Rare Zenit-5 ZENIT 5  Russian Soviet SLR camera Vega-3 lens
Zenit-5  is a small format single - lens reflex camera with a central lens shutter and interchangeable lenses, produced at the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant from 1964 to 1968 . Part of the Zenit-4 family . A total of 11 611 units were produced .
The main feature of the camera was the first in the USSR electric drive for shutter cocking and film advance  . In addition, for the first time in the world, it was built directly into the tape drive mechanism  . Prior to this, motor drives were designed as a separate plug-in unit.
Technical features
Main article: Zenit-4
Like the entire Zenit-4 line, the fifth model is built according to a scheme unusual for single-lens DSLRs with a central shutter instead of a focal one. The general enthusiasm for the latest electronic flash in the mid-1950s forced many manufacturers of photographic equipment to abandon the focal shutter, which is traditional for cameras with interchangeable optics , in favor of a central one . In this way, it was possible to shoot with a "fill" flash at any shutter speed, even in bright sunlight. Of the two well-known schemes: with afocal attachments and completely replaceable lenses with a reduced exit pupil, Soviet engineers chose the second, based on the German Voigtländer Bessamatic.
However, the main feature of the Zenit-5 was the presence of a built-in electric drive, which had not been previously used in Soviet general-purpose cameras  . DC motors have been used to cocking the shutter of cameras since 1957 (for the first time on the Nikon SP ), but until now they were made as a separate unit, fixed on the camera if necessary . In Zenit-5, the drive was fully integrated into the camera kinematics, and instead of the cocking trigger, a cylindrical head was provided in case of battery failure. Power was supplied from four disk nickel-cadmium batteries D-0.2, also built into the case without the possibility of quick replacement .
In addition to the obvious advantages, such an electric drive device also had significant drawbacks. The batteries could only be recharged with an external charger , which took several hours. In case of unexpected shooting with dead batteries, the main advantage of the camera became a problem, forcing the photographer to cock the shutter with an inconvenient head. Foreign cameras in those years were equipped with attached electric drives, and the platoon trigger remained in its original place. This made it possible to disconnect a heavy and noisy drive in situations where it was not required or interfered with. In addition, the batteries in the external power supply were easily replaced with charged ones  .
Built-in electric drives proved to be justified as non-volatile mechanical gates were abandoned. For the first time such a device was used only in 1979 in an amateur SLR Konica FS-1 with quick-change finger batteries  . The possibility of a manual cocking is excluded along with the trigger, since in the absence of power supply, the shutter also turned out to be inoperative. At the same time, AA batteries were easily replaced with fresh ones, widely available on the market, if necessary. Zenit-5 did not become popular due to poor quality and insufficient battery capacity, and in 1968, together with the entire Zenit-4 line, it was discontinued. An additional argument was the lack of interchangeable lenses on sale and the problem of compatibility with optics from ordinary Zenits" .
Despite all the shortcomings, the Zenit-5 became the most technically equipped Soviet camera, and not only among the small-format ones . In addition to the only electric drive in the USSR and synchronization with electronic flashlights at all exposures, many more advantages were concentrated in this camera. It is the country's first semi-automatic exposure control with the display in the viewfinder, automatic diaphragm , removable pentaprism with almost one hundred percent field of view lens bayonet connection and the availability of only at the time of zoom camera lens " Rubin-1", Not produced for threaded" Zenith ". This combination of capabilities, with the exception of objective measurement , remained unsurpassed until the collapse of the Soviet camera industry after Perestroika .
Characteristics
Zenit-5, like the rest of the family's cameras, is a camera with a semi-automatic exposure setting . In the viewfinder's field of view, two arrows of the paired selenium exposure meter are visible ; for the correct exposure setting, they must be aligned. The range of photosensitivity of a photographic film is from 16 to 500 units. GOST.
Exposure meter arrows in the viewfinder field of view
The body of the camera is die-cast of aluminum alloy with an opening rear wall;
The pressure table is made of glass , which is more wear-resistant than metal, which reduced the wear of the film during rewinding;
The built-in electric drive pulled the film at a frequency of up to 1.5 frames per second;
In addition to standard type-135 cassettes, the camera supported cassettes from " Zorky-6 " with a spring-loaded flocked mouth. When closing the rear wall, its special protrusion turned the inner cylinder of the cassette, opening the mouth for free passage of the film. It was recommended to use these cassettes for free film advance and normal motor operation;
Film rewinding - with a tape-type head on the side wall of the chamber;
Automatic self-resetting frame counter when opening the back wall, shows the remaining number of frames;
Mechanical self - timer ;
Tripod socket thread  - 3/8 " " ;
Viewfinder field of view  - 23.2 × 35.2 mm;
Focusing screen  - matte glass with Doden wedges ;
Removable pentaprism, can be replaced with a folding shaft with a magnifying glass ;
Increasing ocular viewfinder - 5 × .
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