SLR Camera

SLR Camera

When you record, or Zenit Praktica, then shooting modern automatic compact camera virtually eliminates any interference is not likely to be of interest to you. Yes, and do not understand why you refuse SLR camera – the most universal tool in the hands of a photographer. Firms producing modern photographic equipment do not forget those photo enthusiasts and offer them solutions for every taste. In our country the percentage of people shoot Canon, for historical reasons is higher than in other countries. And now the market of such technology is developing rapidly. This article will help you decide the world’s digital SLR cameras.

Cells produced in the CIS

About 10 years ago, the choice boiled down to Zenit / Kiev with our optics, and in a good situation – a Praktica with GDR’ovskim Zeiss. In fact, no other options were. Now the situation has changed dramatically, the choice has expanded significantly, which creates a certain “problems”. Begin gently with our cameras, they are still produced and sold. Also sold the camera, which had long ceased production, but the reserves are, apparently, somewhere preserved.

With regard to our technology, there are many different myths. It certainly allows you to make good shots and enjoy the shooting, but its quality is low. This is a massive photo devices, the one that can be bought in stores. In some cases it yields the manual cleanup But this is not an argument for its purchase now. Small-scale and sometimes produced interesting things, but buy them in stores was not, as the development of new and notable products in recent years is no information. Poses additional problems are often unstable and not very good build quality cameras at our factories. Now, zenitostroenie “presented Krasnogorskii Zenith 122 (K), 212 (K), Auto, AM2 (3), APC also found Zenit E, 12, most of which are made not in Krasnogorsk. Sometimes it comes across Zenith 19, 18.

What is a Zenith? Line of the basic models of “classical” Zenit is as follows: Zenit E (and its clones) – Zenit TTL – Zenith 12 – Zenith 122 (K) – Zenit 212 (K). The index K indicates that the camera has a bayonet K. Pentax K mount lens mount has been copied from the company Pentax. If firms the same mount, then the body (corpus) of one firm can use other lenses. What are the “classic” Zenith? This camera, with a very similar shutter (cloth curtain), practiced five excerpts (in the model 212 Zenith – more). The prototype for this was the first gate valve company Leica, developed in the area in 1913 (it’s not a typo!). Zenit E has a built-in exposure meter. All other cameras have a system of TTL (Through The Lens), which measures the light passing through the lens. Zenit 12 Zenit TTL differs from the fact that he has an indicator LED display, while Zenit TTL – turnout, the Zenith 122 increased the number of plastic in the body (such as cassette lid), a Zenith 212 redesigned and modified (added a few excerpts) shutter. This rule is obsolete and has some unpleasant features (about 64 percent of the frame in the viewfinder, hard descent, strong vibration from the mirror, low reliability and accuracy, especially in winter). If you intend to shoot than a few films a year, taking into account the price of photographs, buying such a camera now, in our opinion, is pointless, it does not provide good quality, and its reliability is low. Newer models of AM2 and AIC are different constructs, a larger range of shutter speeds, more sensitive measurement, the rudiments of automation, but they have their problems. For example, AM2 does not allow to manually set an arbitrary pair of aperture / shutter speed, which, in our view, unacceptable. Post-warranty repair of the “new” Zenit now roads. To aggravate the situation and the fact that all of the Zenith, except agriculture, fitted as standard version of the Helios-44, quality is low. Sometimes be found on sale at a reasonable price Zenith 19 of the old stock, one of the best Zenith. Option to mount it, but there is only a thread. For the zenith, there are many different our optics on its quality, again, difficult to write, it is very unstable. Heplohie lenses can pick up, but it must be well-versed in this matter. In principle, the Zenith can buy and lens-known company, but this combination is understood.

In addition to the Zenith, on the territory of CIS is now available Kiev 19M. Also available for sale Kiev 19 and Kiev 20. This is good purely mechanical camera with TTL, mount H (copied from Nikon), more or less normal and reliable shutter (if possible, still makes sense to show it to the mechanics), mild (compared with our other cameras) descent, a kind of design. Kiev 19 – a simplified version of the Kiev 20. At one time, the 20th could not bring to the normal form (there was a large culling, and cost it dear). Simplifying it, got Kiev 19 – probably the most successful our camera (especially in terms of price / performance). Model Kiev 19m is different from Kiev in 1919 that there appeared plastic, changed battery, changed the focusing screen (added a wedge), and froze it provides full aperture (19 – when working). From our cells is actually all.

If you expect to use our eyes to the Nikon or Pentax (or their eyes on the Zenith or Kiev), note that there may be some (sometimes major) problems, there are cases when our lenses wedge (usually associated with different tolerances for them and us ). To avoid this it is desirable to be careful not to exert any effort, especially when you first install.

Also we would like to focus on our flares. Most of them are not balanced for color temperature, which poses serious problems when shooting in color. That is, if you need flash to our cell, it is better to buy an inexpensive import, for example, from Unomat (most often the recommended option – some of Unomat 24, for example Unomat 24TAC).

What can you buy SLR cameras

What can you buy

Heskolko years ago we began to appear in the camera known firms, and among fans began to appear on the idea of buying. At present in Moscow and some large cities in Russia emerged more or less normal market cameras. To buy no automatic SLR a good company with one objective now should be about $ 250 (approximately equivalent to the price Zenith AIC). To buy a good camera with autofocus and zoom lens company first row should be about $ 600. Also note that sometimes “the appetite comes with eating, and in addition to the camera lens with staff still want to buy additional lenses, various accessories, such as flash (without the normal flash shot in color in a room is difficult). All this will require additional costs (different, accessories for Canon / Nikon are much more expensive than the accessories Yashica).

As a price guide for foreign-made cameras in this article are the average of Moscow prices. The price range for the camera in Moscow can reach 50 percent in Russia and CIS it even more.

Summary firms

Provides “five” Japanese firms are Canon, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax (alphabetically), Kyocera (released Contax / Yashica), Leica, and the company’s “second line”, for example, Ricoh, Sigma, Vivitar, etc. n. Contax and Leica – the oldest brands of high quality professional 35 mm photography. Their cameras are very expensive (from about $ 1000 for body). Optics same way, Contax lenses supplied by Zeiss. Descriptions of cameras of this class are beyond the scope of this article. Companies ‘second line’ under-represented here, this creates certain problems. The quality of cameras these firms is high. Hedorogaya manual camera from this company – a great alternative to Zenith. The Five dominates the world market. All of these firms is very high class, if someone speaks about some of them are bad – do not believe him. Currently, the lion’s share of the market for professional 35 mm cameras in this class supervise Nikon and Canon. This only indicates that the top models of these two firms have some features that make professional photographers feel more confident with them. If you do not need to shoot a series at a speed of 5 (10) frames per second, and if you do not plan on 365 days a year to shoot several films a day in various difficult conditions, etc., the Pentax / Minolta / Olympus anything for you worse. Olympus, though, because of its range of models (their emphasis is on the SLR with built-in lenses and reliable professional SLRs without AF, which are used in various tricky areas such as medicine, astronomy) from the five drops. Detailed specifications of cameras in this article describes are not about them, you can read in other sections of our magazine.

I would like to mention a few moments. The first – the market cameras are very conservative, and therefore very difficult to change the company. That is, if a person buys a camera of some firms, it would have to buy accessories for it. Sell them and move the camera of another company (especially in our conditions) will be very difficult. “They live” normal camera for a long time, 10 years as a minimum, morally outdated too slowly, some special cells, such as manual Nikon FM2, in general, is unlikely to become obsolete in the near future. The second point – the breakthroughs in technology are unlikely, and the characteristics of cells in a similar price range. The third point – there are so many people are fixated on another company (usually or Nikon, or Canon), and accordingly, they are absolutely not adequate, it makes sense to treat their opinion with great care. Such people can meet in different places, and among the authors of magazines, and among sellers at the store. Talk about what the company is better, absolutely meaningless. You can only compare specific models, each has its pluses and minuses. Talk about a serious superiority of optics which is a firm “five” is also usually inspired by myths, each of the firms have different optics, including excellent. Fourth – if you buy works very much subjective factors, such as design, the presence of cameras of the company of friends / acquaintances, the possibility of buying, assortment of accessories, etc. Finally, and most importantly, do not get hung up on photo devices, even an inexpensive manual camera lets you make great shots. We have repeatedly encountered cases when, soon after buying the people there was a desire to change something in our view, this is usually not justified, and better think about what you want to buy the camera, rather than after. Also, when buying a camera should be borne in mind that if you buy multiple lenses, flash and other accessories, the hardware costs (body) will be not so much a part of your kit.