In light of signs of hope in settling the Russian / Ukraine crisis in a peaceful, diplomatic fashion, I thought it a good day to shoot with a totally Russian camera as a symbol of good faith.
So I loaded a Russian Zenit EM equipped with Helios-44 f:2/58mm lens (made in the suburbs of Moskva, I believe) with a roll of asa 200 film and went out looking for more Spring.
I started the roll around the outside of our house.
Next stop was the old St. Paul's cemetery in Fenton.
From there I ended up on the Meramec River and ran the roll to the end.
Super closeups were with the aid of a screw on +3 diopter filter, and yielded a maximum close focus of about 1:2.

Camera showed some good traits and some bad traits.
On the positive side, the body has the Universal m42 Screwmount, and so a myriad of lens choices is possible.
The body feels solid and rugged, a good thing because it offers a stable platform.
And the shutter release mechanism gives a DOF preview before every release.

On the negative side, shutter speeds are limited to 1/30 through 1/500.
The small diameter knob makes rewinding the film a long process.
And although the 58 mm lens is reasonably sharp, it was giving me some strange flare and reflective characteristics, despite my use of a rubber lens hood. Perhaps the screw on filter was contributing?

Please click on thumbnails to see enlarged.
All images are Copyright 2014 E.J.Kowalski.