Zenit TTL

GIVES VERY GOOD PHOTOS, A LITTLE BIT DARK VIEWFINDER, NICE SHUTTER, HELIOS LENSES ARE QUITE SHARP SPECIALLY THE 77M. NICE BOKEH TOO.. I LOVE IT:)

The Zenit TTL is like an AK-47, bare basic. just a tool to take a picture with it.

spec. is not much but enough to take good picture. Good lens and

shutter sound good. The cost performance is unbeatable. This camera will make you think about photography from very basic level. Make you think about necessity of high dollar equipment. You don't have to baby this camera, barn lot of film and learn photo.

I get fantastic images with my TTL and photosniper. You just have to get to know the camera and how it operates. These things cost nothing to buy so not much to complain about. If your new to photography its worth buying a cheap Zenit. They will make you a better photographer and once you know what you are doing with the manual controls you can splash out on some fancy kit.

The Zenit TTL is a nice sturdy metal camera from a dependable maker, nothing to go wrong, no battery problems like those nasty digital things.

I have one that I picked up in a charity shop in Yorkshire for £5...

It has a nice Japanese lens, a 28mm wide angle and I am pleased with the results.

I purchased a Zenit TTL in a small camera shop in Kherson, Ukraine together with a 58mm f2.0 Helos lens. It is a terrible piece! I have seen resolution better from a $15 digital. The metering is awkward and inaccurate. It is best suited to be a collectors item sitting on the shelf.

I have 2 of these cameras, and I think they are great because they're easy to use, and I get great pictures. Zenit TTL is also the one camera in this series that allready has an electronic light meter installed. I have the original lens, and they have the best optik, so the pictures are also great.

This is a great camera for the price. You can get the Zenit shipped to your door for under 40 bucks (US$). Compare what you can get at the store for 40 bucks (3 filters or something similarly insignificant). No contest. Its fully manual, okay, either you like that or you don't. The Helios lens that came standard is excellent. Very sharp, excellent lens. The TTL was made before Zenit started using a lot of plastic so it should work fine until the shutter curtains disintegrate (they have a realistic life span of under 30 years if the camera has had any significant use, which surprisingly most have not). The flash sync is useless unless you're in the middle of nowhere at 4am trying to photograph bigfoot (syncs at 1/30 sec). This is not a good choice for indoor people photography like weddings, go for an automatic Canon, you're not going to have time to mess with this camera's quirks in a fast moving situation like that. However for general purpose photography, like a cheap camera to take on vacation or outdoors, etc, go for it! Just get one with the lights for the metering. Mine has a match needle, which is black and therefore becomes invisible in low light conditions which becomes anything not in the sunlight. The battery cover comes off easily and should be taped on for safety as it is easily lost and hard to replace. It would be nice if this had more speeds, but it doesn't. So if you need slower than 1/30, use a stopwatch and the B setting. I usually don't shoot higher than 1/500 so the lack of faster speeds doesn't bother me. Very nice camera, as I said, all you have to do is mention to people that you're using a camera from behind the iron curtain and the conversation won't let up. If you're not confortable with non automatic equipment, this would not be the camera for you, if you like to do things yourself, get one of these while they're still cheap and plentiful, don't bother with a fixer upper, buy a nice one from a reputable seller and this should last you for years to come.

I have had a Zenit TTL for more than 20 years.

This camera is maximum unificated with Zenit B, BM, E and EM. All these are from the same series with different light metering. B and BM did not have a light meter at all, E and EM had built in light meter with sensor placed on pentaprism (not TTL).

The difference between B and BM, E and EM is automatic apperture that lets focusing with open aperture. The most advanced camera from this series is Zenit TTL, it has all best features from it's predecessors plus TTL metering. View finder is very dark (even darker than it's predecessors) that makes focusing in low light very difficult and shows only 67% of the frame.

Light metering is done with stopped down aperture using CDs cell that has very slow reaction and very long memory, it makes very difficult to take pictures in fast changing light conditions, it's match needle type. The camera was produced in two facilities: KMZ the better one and BeOmo with lack in quality control. Total production of Zenit TTL was about 6 million units.

The better version of Zenit TTL was Zenit 12XP that was made for export and had better body finish. The camera has very simple construction, it's highly upgraded pre war Leica. The good point is monolithic body construction that makes this camera extremely durable. Because in end of 70' already colour photography started to be more popular Zenit should ensure maximum accuracy of shutter speeds, so they replaced few metal parts with plastic that does not need lubrication.

Shutter movement was really smoother but the drawback of such solution was highly decreased shutter MTBF. The standard lens was Hellios 44 58mm f/2.0 a copy of Carl Zeiss Biotar. Zenit B, BM, E, EM had the same standard lens but another option was very small Industar 50mm f/3.5. Hellios 44 is 6 element lens that had multicoated version for luxury variations (for export and etc). Zenit 122 is the same TTL with plastic covered body, bright viewfinder, more accurate metering using 3 LED's display and few more small improvements, but generously the same.

Most Zenit SLR's have M42 screw lens mount, but there was a version with Pentax K bayonet. The older versions like mine don't have hot shoe' only a PC sync. This simple mechanical camera with very basic features is good as starting point for amateur that one day will become professional. The quality of photos is highly dependable on photographer. With good lens in good hands you can make a miracle.