Smena-3

Smena-3 is a Soviet compact camera manufactured at the GOMZ factory from 1958 to 1960. This camera differed from the Smena-2 camera only in the presence of a film advance lever.

That is, in fact, Smena-3 is the same Smena-2 but with a shutter cocking lever. Apparently, in the Soviet Union, the presence of such a small difference in the model made it possible to give it a different number.

Smena-3 Specifications

Type: 35mm viewfinder camera
Manufacturer: GOMZ plant
Production period: from 1958 to 1960
Format: 24x36cm on 135 film
Lens mount: fixed lens
Lens: T-22 f4.0/40
Shutter: leaf shutter with speeds from 1/10 to 1/200 sec.
Viewfinder: optical viewfinder
Lighmeter: none
Flash synchronisation: none
Selftimer: none
Weight: 290 grams

Smena-3 was an exact duplicate of the first two models. It was also made of bakelite, and in the same way, equipped with a Triplet T-22 4.5/40 lens.

This lens may seem a little too dark, but the point is that Cooke triplet was one of the easiest lenses to make. The fact is that it is rather difficult to create a fast triplet, and a faster lens would have led to an increase in the price of the camera, which was not at all necessary for the Soviet engineers who created this camera.

Secondly, it is a scale-focusing camera, and a 4.5 aperture combined with a focal length of 40mm allows for a wide depth of field, which in turn reduces the likelihood of focusing mistakes.

And of course, like the previous cameras, Smena-3 was equipped with a leaf shutter with speeds of 1/10, 1/25, 1/50, 1/100, 1/200, and B.

As we said earlier, this set of shutter speeds was quite normal for those years. In fact, Zenits, being much more high-end cameras, were also equipped with a set of 5 shutter speeds until the 90s of the 20th century.

The shutter cocking is not combined with the advancing of the film, so in Smena-3 you can do excellent double exposure just like in the earlier cameras.

And there is also no film rewinding in this soviet camera, and all the exposed film is fed into the receiving spool. It is not entirely clear to us why it was difficult to make film rewinding in this camera.

The camera is equipped with a frame counter. This element looks quite stylish and somehow resembles a watch. The camera is not equipped with a self-timer, but the Sovietcameras.org team rarely faced the challenge of using this feature.

What can be said about the Smena-3 camera? This is a beautiful camera, which is an interesting artifact from the bygone era.

This camera is very simple, but that’s why it’s interesting. Like all cameras equipped with a triplet lens, this camera makes wonderful shots with a great old-fashioned effect.