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Smena series is a viewfinder 35mm film camera made by GOMZ, MMZ and later LOMO. Introduced 1953 by GOMZ. First series of Smena is also known as Smena-1. (See this article also Soviet Factory Logos)

Smena = Смена, literally means next shift, often reference to next generation, soviet youth, which may suggest target user for the entry level product.

Initially a folding camera with Smena name was created in early 1939 by young Soviet designer I.Shapiro. In 1953, he created first 35mm camera with Smena name again. As an original Soviet product, Smena was a big event in Soviet photo industry.

These cameras were designed to be inexpensive and accessible to the public. It is a very simple viewfinder camera made of bakelite. It has a removable back and uses cassette to cassette film transport. All controls are on the lens/shutter barrel.

The long lasting Smena series went through at least 25 models, running until the mid-1990s.

Smenas were made bakelite and later plastic bodies and was equipped with a three element lens (Cooke triplet) with a leaf shutter. Cameras of Smena-1 to Smena-7, have no film rewind capability and two cassettes had always to be used.

The list below is as to Alexander Komarov and Aidas Pikiotas. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Models of Smena series[]

Notes and references[]

  1. in Fotoua and in SovietCams
  2. There are usefull books about cameras of former USSR and have classifications also.
  3. Pages from the the book of former USSR cameras by Suglob, Shaternik, Kochergin
  4. Discussion about clasifications in the books of Princelle and Suglob, Shaternik, Kochergin in USSR Photo Forum

Links[]

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