My Thoughts On the Zenit 11 Russian Camera

[@geminibornpoet]

Good afternoon, just ordered my own Zenit 11 I’m really excited; it’ll be my first SLR camera. I go on vacation soon and intend to use it on my trip. Your video helped me understand the basics and make me more excited. I’m looking forward to the challenge and learning the ins and outs of this camera. Your photos looked dope. Wish me luck!

[@EdmundKBoateng]

That sounds fun, I'm glad my video helped. It is a fun camera you going to enjoy it. All the best and thanks for watching

[@MikeGrayFilm]

pictures were truly beautiful bro.

[@EdmundKBoateng]

Thank you bro! Thanks for watching

[@radisb]

Nice video,man! Greetings from Russia and Kazakhstan. I am exploring USSR cameras as well, had not a great experience with Zenit TTl and was considering Zorki 4. Your comments about range funders helped a lot, thanks!

[@EdmundKBoateng]

Thank you mate, I'm glad my video helped. Appreciate you watching

[@davehanner360]

Malik rocking the Oly Pen F…OMG…great little camera! Loved the contrasty clouds too!

[@EdmundKBoateng]

Oh yeah it takes him 6months to finish a roll haha. Thanks for watching

[@davehanner360]

@@EdmundKBoateng 6 months to finish a roll, wow, that’s crazy!

[@EdmundKBoateng]

@@davehanner360 hahahaha I might be exaggerating but for 72 shots I assume that’s how long it will take haha

[@lillianvalentine1975]

It’s great to see another analog photographer in my area! Digging your channel and looking forward to seeing the new camera.

[@EdmundKBoateng]

That’s awesome Amanda, appreciate you watching

[@SzymonWarunek]

I am a Polish.I live in The UK.We have got plenty of old film cameras.This year,i have taken some photographs in Truro in Cornwall.I have used: Cosina CT-1 a japanesse analog film camera.I like retro looking pictures from these cameras,i have used: color negative film - codak color plus 200.I also have Zenit russian soviet cameras.

[@EdmundKBoateng]

That is awesome, film is pretty cool and fun. I haven't used a Cosina CT-1 yet, looks like a fun cool camera. Thanks for watching mate!

[@TimCools_WithALongO]

I notice you were using an Takumar lens on the Zenit. I really have to warn against that, for two reasons that wouldn't be issues in and of themselves but can have pretty bad consequences if they come together. So, firstly, Asahi Pentax lenses come with a very small second pin next to the threading. You may not have even noticed it before. Essentially what it does is it controls whether or not you can switch between the automatic and manual aperture setting. When you put the lens on a camera and screw it on all the way, the body of the camera will depress this pin, allowing you to toggle between the two. Secondly, however, many Zenit cameras have either 3 or 4 screws in the front face of the lens mount, connecting it to the rest of the body. Because they are screwed in from the front, you can easily see them, but they also leave these very little "pits" in the face of the lens mount. Now here's the problem: that very small pin in the Takumar lens, is kept protruding out of the back of the lens (so the side of the threading) by some pretty powerful spring tension, and while hard to see it is still long enough to reach inside one of those little screw pits. Because of that spring tension, what can happen is: the pin gets pushed in by the camera body as it's meant to be, but then bounces back outwards when it reaches one of those pits in the lens mount, and then gets stuck in there before you can twist the lens all the way on. The result is that your lens is now completely stuck in this jiggly position where you can only slightly twist it both ways but you can neither screw it all the way on, nor unscrew it to take it off the camera. What's worse is that it's *so* close to being fully screwed on that the gap between the camera body and the lens is miniscule, so you have to find something REALLY thin to fit in there but sturdy enough to essentially push the pin back into the lens for just an instant so that you can unscrew it further. I had this happen to me and the only way I was able to fix this was by wedging a feeler gauge (that's a very thin piece of metal used to measure tiny gaps between car components, I'm talking gaps as little as 0.10mm) and then basically trying to crowbar the pin upwards back into the lens while someone else firmly held and twisted the lens so that it could come off before the pin protruded again. I tried to use a lot of other things first, like paper, but the spring tension behind the pin is too strong for anything that isn't made of metal. Even with the stainless steel feeler gauge, it takes a lot of trying and, in my case, it also ended up bending that pin out of alignment, so that my Takumar lens is now forever stuck at manual aperture mode (which is my least favourite one because literally why would you ever need that???) I'm mentioning this here because it's a very esoteric problem to have and I was lucky enough to find out how to fix it through a very old forum thread dating back to the mid 2000s of people having the same issue, so I want to help get the word out in other places, should it happen to someone else in the future. Anyway, thanks for the video. TL;DR avoid putting your Takumar lens on Zenit cameras in the future even if you have no other options. They're both good pieces of equipment, but they were not engineered with each other in mind.

[@EdmundKBoateng]

Thank you for the information and thanks for watching

[@PietkaMS]

You asked so here it goes, the panel on the front is a light meter, after you set your ISO(gost/din) on the left dial, it will tell you which shutter speed to use based on the position of the circle and needle. That being said the light meter is selenium, and probably long expired by now.

[@EdmundKBoateng]

Since the video I have figured it out and it does actually works. Thanks for the information and that for watching

[@theblackmanarmedwithacamera]

ASIDE FROM THE MUSIC MAKING ME WANT TO GO NIGHTY NIGHT, I DUG THE VIDEO!!! DOPE SHOTS BETWEEN THE BOTH IF YOU!💯🤘🏾🤘🏾👊🏾

[@EdmundKBoateng]

Appreciate you! Thanks

[@murraykriner9425]

Your Zenith 11 is a tank for shooting.

[@EdmundKBoateng]

Actually no, it's smaller than you would think and not that heavy, unfortunately I sold it because I didn't like the way the camera focuses. I'm more of a split prism/ range finder person. Thanks for watching

[@murraykriner9425]

@@EdmundKBoateng you are living and working in my old stomping ground, my friend. I recognize most of the images you shot. That's the Franklin Park Area. I'm an Eastside Boy, from Columbus, Ohio, now living in Utica, Ohio. It was great seeing the old neighborhood still getting some love through your eyes. Peace Edmund! ✌️

[@EdmundKBoateng]

@murraykriner9425 oh that's awesome! I live in OTE so not far from me and love the neighborhood. Cheers

[@romayusuf]

Why the photos black and white?

[@BruteForceGarage]

Are you only able to get black and white pics or does it shoot in color?

[@EdmundKBoateng]

You can load color film to shoot in color, photos were black and white because I had black and white film loaded in the camera

[@Owwliv]

The Fuji St605 is a pretty good m42 option. Relatively modern manual SLR. Modern batteries, good light meter.

[@Owwliv]

Metering is done by pressing the depth of field preview button, which is a little janky, but, ok.

[@EdmundKBoateng]

Yeah I seen those, just didn’t like how it looks lol

[@EdmundKBoateng]

Oh okay I will test it out now to see if it works

[@MrFlagman1980]

Hey man, I love the Zenit camera. I’ve got the EM built in 1979 and I’ve just bought an 11 from 1985. They’re cracking cameras, built to last. My EM is still in use, and I fully intend to get the 11 going too. The light metering is pretty simple to use once you know how it works. This video kzbin.info/www/bejne/baSTkKWjepaUgbM explains it a lot better than I ever could. Good luck and I’ll follow your channel to see how you get on.

[@EdmundKBoateng]

Thank you so much Mate! I do love thé Zenit and finally got to learn the light meter ( thanks for sharing the link though). However I struggle with the focusing and just can’t get myself to still keep it because of that especially for someone who prefer split screen or rangefinders. Appreciate the watch and subscribe

[@MrFlagman1980]

@@EdmundKBoateng No worries chap, I’ve just got back into analogue photography; you just don’t get the same feeling with digital. Keep up the quality content :)

[@EdmundKBoateng]

Appreciate you mate!

[@ChavaStPh]

soviet camera , no russian :)