Zenit 12 XP

A 35mm Russian SLR

For some reason, I have a thing for oddball technology. I love my old British cars, my modern car has a manual transmission, I prefer fountain pens over ballpoint or roller balls, and you get the picture. My camera collection is no different. I can’t be happy with the extremely capable Canon equipment I own, so I have to go searching for cameras that, even when they were current, were seldom seen in the US. This Zenit 12 XP is just such a camera.

I had never heard of this camera before seeing it on an online thrift auction site. Now I knew about Zenit cameras in general, but not this one. I actually cut my teeth on a Zenit B (I think!) as my first real camera back when I was learning how to shoot film when I was in eighth grade. That camera even got me my first paying photography gig, shooting photos of a summer school field trip for the science department. Not long after that though it gave up the ghost and I gave up on photography for a long time.

But now I am back into photography again - both digital and film. And that puts me on a collision course with lots of oddball stuff. Like the Zenit 12 XP.

The Zenit 12 XP is a very basic 35mm SLR with 42mm screw mount lens, shutter speeds up to 1/500 of a second, and a basic (though in my case non-functional) manual light meter. And by manual I mean that it will show you an indication of the recommended exposure, but you must still adjust your aperture and speed manually - no automation here. Since the meter plays no actual function in the operation of the camera, I don’t care whether it works or not. What you see in the picture is my KEKS KM02 shoe mount meter in use which looks quite right and is probably far more accurate than the original.

The camera is quite sturdy, and a press of the shutter release brings a resounding ker-thunk - a sound that all too easily brings to mind the hollow finality of revolutionary guillotines. The film loads easily, the winding lever is smooth and responsive, and the entire camera feels solid and hefty in a most satisfying way

I snapped up this bit of Soviet-era gear from the auction site where it came with what is supposedly an at least halfway decent Fujinon lens. A 55mm f3.5. I am currently about 20 shots into my first role of film in it; and can’t wait to finish off the roll, develop it, and see how the pictures look.

If all goes according to plan, this will also be the first role of film I have personally developed in over 40 years. Up to this point I have been sending everything out to either my local or a few male order labs. But back in the day I used to be quite good at filmed development, and I have recently re-acquired all of the trade. I will admit to being slightly worried about that as well. I am far more worried about my development abilities than how this camera performs.

The biggest question that I fear will arise is if the pictures come out poorly after development, it may be hard to tell if the problems arose due to my developing skills or if it could be a fault with the camera. I guess we will have to wait and see.

I will llet you know how it all turns out. As soon as I have photos back, good or bad, I will post them here.