To continue our celebrations of ICCD09 on May 1st, we are giving away one of two well respected Commie Cameras, along with a roll of expired film.
You have the chance to win either a Zenit-E SLR camera with a 3/30mm lens, OR a Belomo Vilia Auto camera (with a slightly sticky shutter, probably just needs greased).
These two cameras, although both mass produced in the FSU, were at the opposite ends of the camera spectrum.
the Zenit E with 30mm Lens
The burly Zenit was mass produced in figures excess of 12 million units. Coupled with the 30mm lens, you should be able to produce some magnificent 35mm images.
The Belomo Vilia Auto
On the other hand, if lo-fi photography is your ‘thang’, then perhaps you would feel more at home with the Belmo Vilia Auto. The Vilia has found a comfortable home among lo-fi photographers due to it’s cheap price (although ever-increasing in this ‘lomographic society’ we live in), and fantastic results. The auto version that you can win has a CDS meter built into the lens (much like the Olympus Trip, but y’know, worse) that controls shutter speed depending on the light. All you need to do is adjust the aperture and focus, and you’re sorted. There is a slight problem with this Vilia however, in that the shutter is a wee bit sticky. This can probably be fixed with so good old fashioned cleaning and lubing 
The choice is yours, you get to choose which camera you want as a prize. Whichever camera you choose, you also get a roll of expired (2006) Fuij Superia film. Worldwide Postage is also included in the prize (although if you choose the Zenit, expect it to take a while to arrive…it weighs a bloody ton!).
How to Enter
This is the easy part. Simply leave a comment below explaining which camera you would like to win, and why you want it. The best answer wins! Closing date is sometime at the weekend, not sure when though!
Comments
The Zenit-E…. that brings back memories. I used to use one rock climbing back in my mis-spent youth. Possibly the only camera that could both take pictures, and be used to hammer pitons in when you lost your hammer!
Does the comment have to refer to Commie Camera Day or is it completely open? I’ll have to get thinking!
Absolutely the Zenit-E! Zenit means to me Soviet Union: I remember the lucent Zenit of my best friend’s father, back from artistic studies in Soviet Union, wrapped in leather case… definitely my youth days object of desire!
I don’t want to win any of these cameras, and especially I don’t want to win the Zenit-E! I remember using one once, and seriously speaking, I would be ashamed if I made it myself, it’s so unreliable-falling apart-inside and outside, and heavy as a tank as one can only imagine. Chances are that my example was made on Monday after serious vodka-drinking weekend for the factory workers, but it doesn’t make any excuse to me, the quality control should be conscious at least, but we all know that the plan of making NNNNN number of cameras monthly/early was more important than making a small number of better examined ones. The party demands quantity, not quality, it looks better in the statistics. Good luck for other competitors
I would love to win that Zenit-E, but, after a close look of the picture of the guy, holding it in that add, and fearing that it might be contagious, I take the safe choice the Belomo Vilia Auto.
The Zenit-E would be nice to have since I just got married and would love a camera to document the fledgling Diesels that 1: can take more than 12 shots and 2: has a bit more control and reliability than a Holga. Plus my wife is from old East Berlin (before the wall came down) so she would love it if we had an old Commie camera.
The Zenit-E because I need a funky camera to take baby-pictures of my first son who will be born in early September.
Hello My name is Yury and I am 88 years old. I am from Krasnogorsk in Russia, home of Zenit camera. I am finding this Holgablog web site when I am on internet for memories of old cameras. I used to work in a factory here in Soviet Union making these cameras! It was a special time for us under the leadership of comrades Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev. We made more cameras than the USA and we had more missiles as well. We could have taken you all how you say to the launderette if we had wanted to. Anyway, I would like to win the Zenit as this was my favourite camera that we used to make. I used to have several in the cellar but one by one they are broken down and so now I am left with no working Zenit. It would be great to get another Zenit and remember the happy times when communism ruled the world. You would make an old man very happy. I would send you some pictures of my happiness taken with the Zenit.
I have two halfs of a moustache, but a naked philtrum (look it up). I also have a dark wig with a built-in stripy visor, so I think I’ll go for the Zenit. Besides, I need the lube for something else.
I will stay out of this but if you want I will be a judge Goat Karma. I have both of those cameras and I will tell you that if you have see my EM you can figure out what my E looks like .. Well used loaned to the 3rd child now who has used it to get started into photography.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3508/3457967431_f3ed864895_m.jpg
Zenit E пожалуйста
Oh wow, I aspire to that fellow’s coolness.
The visor is on the way from eBay, the hair is growing out, and the razor has been specially disabled. Now all I need is a Zenit-E and I too can look optimistically to the horizon and the New Soviet Dawn!
That, and if it works I’ll actually have a working FSU camera. So far I’ve never actually seen one like that.
I have been wanting a Bellomo, since I saw one when I was much younger. I was on a trip to the Smokey Mountains, in Tennessee, with my family. We were snapping pics of the mountains, along with many others, at a scenic overlook. So many SLRs, and even more Kodaks. And then this beauty caught my eye! I spent some time talking to the elderly gentleman who was using it. He was from New Jersey. I have thought of that camera so many times over the years! Thanks for the trip down memory lane!
Michael
I was about to say the Zenith E to go with my new chic moustache and fake teeth. But as everyone else wants that one, I will go with the Belomo.
The photo cell on the Belomo lens seems to me to be selenium, not CDS, but I might be wrong
Hmmm… the Zenit, as there is a cool looking bit seriously rough area in my town that I’d like to photograph and a)lack a wideangle lens b)the rugedness and general looks of the camera would definitely suit the scene and c)can be used as a sledgehammer should anybody try to mug me…
I could attempt to best the creativity of the preceding comments and being an artist I would be a considerable contender. Alas mustache humor can only take you so far. I need not exert myself. If the judges believe me worthy and deserving than they may come to this conclusion they may do so in reflection to honesty. I am as aforementioned an artist. I will be attending a rather pricey art school next year and am already struggling to pay rent, car insurance, etc. I have been working but can never manage to attain financial security. This is because I collect cameras compulsively. I am currently working on my soviet camera collection. I recently acquired a Kiev 88 (medium format), a Kiev 4a (range finder), and a Lomo LCA (Point and shoot); I don’t need to tell you what kind of camera is missing. On the other hand as per the rules I need to tell you which camera I want to be in the running for so yes it is the SLR, the Zenit-E.
Thank you for your consideration.
I’ll be tickled to pieces with either one!
Right now I’m leaning towards the Belomo Vilia. It’s adorable. (It’s a girl thing for me.) Plus my Fed 50 needs a mate.
I want to have a Zenit because I want to prove to my DLSR necklace-ing friends that one can create a great photo even without AF, AE, or any other Automatic in the features.
It is all about seeing the light in a particular space with a loaded camera on hand and clicking that shutter on that decisive moment.
I would choose the Zenit cause I would like to teach my nephew (7 years old by now) using her own professional camera. She is playing with some crappy plastic camera by now.
Unlike most other people here, I would like to win the Belomo, even though it’s kinda broken, it adds character. I also love the commie badge stuck to the front! Although saying that…I don’t know how to fix sticky shutters, so would probably want the Zenit. Although it’s a big big for my small hands, and I don’t really need another SLR.
On second thoughts, can I just have the film?
Hmm, I’m thinking I would enjoy the Zenit, as I have no manual SLR at present. I really enjoy the FED and Zorki cameras I have and yet to experience the Zenit. The 30mm lens sounds great, as I like wide angle shots (short focal length pinhole shots are invariably quite wide and it would be nice to actually know what will be in the frame for a change).
Thanks putting this on. I suppose some of us with an abundance of old FSU gear could help you stage more contests like this . . .
It doesn’t matter that the shutter sticks on the Vilia, its not the image on film that matters, its the fashion image that counts. I can imagine myself strolling down the Champs Elysse with the camera proudly on display alongside my Louis Viutton bumbag. Cool or what???
I would like to have the Belomo Vilia Auto camera….mmm….because I want to learn Russian!!!
XxX
I would really like the Zenit. Actually, I need it. I live in a bad neighborhood, and I need something to protect myself with. I’m not fond of guns, so I’m hoping for the next best thing: the metal tank that is the Zenit E. Hell, the thing looks so intimidating that I think it would scare off any would be muggers and thugs.
So please, help a poor teenager out. Save a life by giving me a Zenit E.
P.S. I hear they can also be used for photography. Whatever that is, it sounds interesting.
The Belomo Vilia – it is the camera of the proletariat. It’s a camera boldly displaying its proud tradition right up front with big Cyrillic litters and a red badge. It’s a camera that needs a little bit of love, but will return years of faithful service. It’s images are the result of typical Russian practicality – muscling light onto film with a hammer and a sickle rather than the finesse of their clockwork and sake counterparts. But it works. We WILL take good pictures. These will be pictures worthy of the laborers, the families, the everyday people who could afford this camera. I would love to see the pictures this camera has already taken. I would love to know the history of this camera. I hope that I am worthy of carrying the torch – continuing the legacy. Long live film! Long live the revolution!
Comrad I would love to get my hands on that Zenit, because my only commie camera is a paper one.
The Zenit looks like my Dirkon but made of soviet steel!
Zenit-E. I want to teach my daughter photography the way I learned photography … full-manual, mechanical, film and a lot of trial & error. My problem is that I no longer have any cameras that are only mechanical and full manual. Winning the Zenit-E would allow me to pass on the great tradition of film photography with classic equipment. It would allow her to learn to see the world instead of just gobbling it up to the next bigger memory card. Make a little girl’s day … let her have a Zenit-E!
That Villa looks so cool, super-fashionable really, but in the end, there is something about weight that is a siren song for me. I know that it would never attract the looks that the Villa would, but that Zenit is dead cool in my book, so if I had to choose only one it would be that one. That, and, the 30mm lens means that I could take photos of something different than I usually do (portraits) and see a little more breathing space…… Heavy space! The Zenit!
I want both of them because i will never get enough of FSU cameras.
In Soviet Russia, photo takes you!
But, seriously, I would love to win either of these glorious, space-race-age photographic machines. The Zenit-E especially, cause I’d love that wide, 30mm lens. Delicious. And, yet, somehow nutritious, in a manner only known to lesser Gods and Yeti. Please let me win. If I win, I will take a photograph of seventy strangers you’ve love to meet and mail them to you. If I don’t win, I will take said photos anyway and you will never see them. Wouldn’t that be a shame?
Yours in grace,
Sir Alexander M. Wichman, Esquire
Zenit makes good filter for potato vodka.
glory motherland.
I’d like the zenit, because I don’t have one.
Hi there !
Well, I would like the Belomo Vilia Auto. Why ?
1. I already have a Zenit E.
2. I think the Zenit should go to Yuri from Krasnogorsk who actually worked at the factory, and I would like to see the pictures of his happiness with the Zenit, hell, why not go there and make an interview
3. I cleaned many shutters, especially russian ones, This one looks a lot like the Lomo Smena 8M shutter, so there should be no problem cleaning it
4. I would appreciate the meter, as I often use my Smena 8M, in full manual mode of course.
5. Everyone wants the Zenit, so let’s take care of the unhappy unwanted camera
I want to gain the Zenit E…
Porque es la única cámara que se debería vender con licencia de armas (voya proponerlo en el Congreso).
Porque dice la leyenda que en la misma fábrica de Krasnogorsk se hacían cámaras y armamento para el Ejército Ruso.
Porque en España (mi país) la Zenit ha sido durante años nuestra Pentax k 1000.
Porque los comunistas se llevaron nuestro oro durante la Guerra Civil (buscad “oro de moscú” en Google).
Porque es probable que sea el único madridista de esta reunión y estaria bien llevarme una alegía este año (ni liga, ni copa ni champions ni ná).
Porque sólo pienso hacer con ella fotos de chicas guapas y os las mandaré (eso es un chantaje, si!).
Porque os estoy obligando a traducir esto XD.
Porque soy un tipo generoso y os dejo la Belomo para vosotros (no os quejaréis).
Porque Rock Elita YA TIENE DEMASIADAS CÁMARAS (I love you so, R.).
Porque aún no he cometido la estupidez de comprarme una DSLR.
¿Dije ya lo de las chicas?.
Porque si venís por España prometo invitaros a jamón y vino (otro chantaje).
Porque si vuelve a venir Carla Bruni, tendré con qué defenderla.
Porque puse puntos al final de todas mis frases.
Y, por último, porque la trataré con mimo y haré con ellas todas las fotos que pueda.
Best regards, JM
lol!
I love this bit:
‘Because I am forcing to you to translate this XD.’
here’s the rest for everyone:
Because it is the unique camera that would be due to sell with permission to bear arms (floats to propose it in the Congress).
Because it says the legend that in the same factory of Krasnogorsk became cameras and armament for the Russian Army.
Because in Spain (my country) the Zenith has been during years our Pentax k 1000. Because the Communists took our gold during the Civil War (you look for “gold of Moscow” in Google).
Because it is probable that it is the unique madridista of this meeting and estaria to take one well to me alegía this year (neither he binds, nor glass nor champions nor ná).
Because only fodder to make with her photos of handsome girls and I will send them to you (that is a blackmail, if). Because I am forcing to you to translate this XD.
Because I am a generous type and I leave the Belomo you for you (you will not complain).
Because Elita Rock ALREADY HAS TOO MANY CAMERAS (I love you under, R.).
Because not yet I have committed the stupidity to buy a DSLR. I said the one of the girls already.
Because if you come by Spain I promise invitaros to ham and it came (another blackmail).
Because if it returns to come Carla Bruni, I will have whereupon to defend it. Because I put points at the end of all phrases. And, finally, I will deal because it with mimo and I will make with them all the photos that can.
Who says I did not find the finest people in the world?
What a funny translation. Very… ¿literal? LOL
I like the Zenit E because i’m afraid to walk home from work at night, and this is the best self defence weapon i have ever seen!
Who needs tazers when you have a Zenit!
Need a translation of JM’s post that’s not a googletranslation mess? I’m spanish and would trade the service for… dunno… a Zenit?
(desperate attempt #2)
I want, need and would LOVE to own the Zenit! I’m the proud owner of a Kiev 88, Fed 2 and Lubitel. Now, to round out my small collection of fantastic FSU cameras, a beautiful 35mm Zenit is just the thing. I love macro photography and it would be just the thing for me to use to get up close and personal to feet, bugs, flowers, pencils, you name it. Just for kicks, I’ll throw in this ode to the Zenit.
Z – is the best letter in the alphabet. So interesting, quirky and unusual. Just like the lovely Zenit! Think of the interesting and unusual shots I could create with it
E – is for English. It’d be great to have a manual written in that particular language but cyrillic is such a beautiful way of communicating. Just like photos taken with the Zenit.
N – is for NOT a novelty. It may be a novelty to all the digital-heads to use a Zenit, but not to me! I would proudly wear it until I got scoliosis and document my world until I fell over with exhaustion.
I – is for Intriguing. That is an intriguing add posted here–the whole guy with the moustache. Kind of looks like my Dad. Scary.
T – is for Top Notch, which is what FSU glass is! I love it!
Please, please, please, I’d love the Zenit!
Just to let you all know, the judges are currently deilberating, and should return a winner very soon
Any website where I can get a photocell for my Zenit! and a manul to repair it !!!!
Zenit-E…it’s my Dream…
well done yuri i am from lebanon 22 years old and i am using the zenit 122SLR camera for shooting(a cours in uni) anyway communism in our heart and will always rules
god bless the communist CCCP
i want that zenit so that i can show all the photos at memory taken with it to my grandchild in the future..i (will) love my cute grand children and the zenit till i die
I don’t need your stinking Zenit E cuz I have my own!
http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q258/JimboFR1/DSC08573.jpg
And, it’s in perfect working order