Topic: Mildly interesting Russian camera: SMENA 8M

[Miller]

Okay, the Smena was bought for fast food money as the box was groovy, but is that a reason to keep a camera…? So armed with some expired Ilford Delta 400 I decided to find out with the words of LL Cool J ringing in my head...        “From Hollis to Hollywood, but is he good….?”

The triplet 40mm F4 lens did not exactly leave me with the feeling of dread but I did wonder about the symbol focusing : Sunny, overcast and cloudy... Along with good ole distance: Portrait, group and landscape.

Well after an afternoon of shooting and then pitching the film to Ilford for processing I truly thought my experiment and time was wasted… Alas, a packet arrived at my office with well exposed images and to be honest I’m now smitten by the lil lightweight Russian mule. Some colour film will ensue shortly and I hope it’ll have some nice saturation. Lomography Society here I come boyeeee....

Rgds

Mlr

[sapata]

Miller ... I have 3 Smenas and I'm a huge fan!

They're cheap, they have those cool toyish features, the faux leatherette case put shame in any well branded camera and mostly, the results are awesome... you have to keep it!

I have recently made a small review on my blog:
http://picturenoise.blogspot.com/search/label/Smena%20Cosmic%20Camera

[Terry]

Mauricio, are those Russian gas masks??

[sapata]

I don't really know Terry... the guy was selling them in Portobello market years ago.

[chricela]

oou...I have a Smena 8 & a Cosmic Symbol. I haven't used in forever. I'm gonna have to go & dig them out of the camera cabinet.

Lovely images!

[Francois]

Russian cameras are definitely something you tend to fall in love with.
I have a Cosmic 35 (the one with the funky leftie grip and thumb grinding rewind button )
Even though everything seems to be backwards on it, it just has a nice feel in your hands.

[moominsean]

this is the kind of camera i would be interested in if i shot more 35mm. cool looking, at least. spotted a collection of smeni in japan a few years back at camera caberet...

[sapata]

Russian cameras are definitely something you tend to fall in love with.
I have a Cosmic 35 (the one with the funky leftie grip and thumb grinding rewind button )
Even though everything seems to be backwards on it, it just has a nice feel in your hands.

The rewind button is thumb and film grinding for sure Francois . Other thing hard to get used to is the life size viewfinder featured on the early models...

[LT]

another fan of the smena here Miller. i've had the 8m and the 35 models. they have an amazing lens for such a crappy camera.

[Chalky]

I have a smena symbol, and it is one of my favourite cameras, has been all over the world with me (Sydney, Phillippines and Morocco below). Cost me £4 and apart from the focus numbers rubbing off, it is in great condition and my main 35mm machine.

great cameras!

[Miller]

I guess from the images shown I can see it's a 35mm worth keepin' on the move...

Here's another from the "Off The Wall" series...

[Ed Wenn]

Yeah, I loved my Smena 8M until I broke it by winding it on after I cocked the shutter...or the other way round....or something. Anyway, I was gutted because I'd enjoyed using it. It was one of the early items in my collection when I switched from digital to film in 2000-ish and embarked on a voyage of discovery w/ regard to all of the cheap, but decent (and stylishly retro) cameras on offer.

Just be careful with the winder...

[jojonas~]

I'm glad you brought this camera up! I think I may have been missing it. maybe shot a roll through it last summer and that was a redscale that didn't go too well.
in fact it's practically thanks to the smena that I learned the basics of and relations between shutterspeed, aperture because how the symbols for weather (shutterspeeds seen on the bottom of the lens) and the aperture coupled to the film iso.

I think it has a decent seperation at f4 and I've always got a nice blur when going at the longer shutter speeds. never too much -in my eyes atleast.

fun to see what others have achieved with the camera, I think I'll share some of my fond shots

[jojonas~]

Yeah, I loved my Smena 8M until I broke it by winding it on after I cocked the shutter...or the other way round....or something. Anyway, I was gutted because I'd enjoyed using it. It was one of the early items in my collection when I switched from digital to film in 2000-ish and embarked on a voyage of discovery w/ regard to all of the cheap, but decent (and stylishly retro) cameras on offer.

Just be careful with the winder...

oh yeah, the winder can leave a bit of a sore thumb if you take too many pictures. I recommend shooting short rolls, it gets tight at the end ;P