"PhotoSniper"...... relic of the Cold War

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1/27/2013 12:10:42 PM

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - "PhotoSniper"...... relic of the Cold War

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SrBenelli

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Joined: Apr 2001

NC, USA

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Posted: 12/30/2011 4:52:05 AM

[Last Edit: 10/5/2012 9:05:18 AM by SrBenelli]

THE IMAGE ABOVE IS A PAID ADVERTISEMENT

Selling my Zenit "PhotoSniper". A true relic of the Cold War.... this one is one of the early ones (I believe early '60s vintage). Everything is there and fully functional. The only issues... the butt stock has a piece missing out of the bottom that doesn't effect functioning (see photos), and the paint on the lens body is chipped. But being that this is an early "gray" body lens (and much more collectable), I resisted the impulse of touching it up. Also included is a Japanese polerising filter (the black filter in the photo), a traditional lens for the camera body and an English copy of the instruction manual.

I remember back in the '80s when SOF magazine aquired one and ran a story. The "romantic" story is that it's a piece of "super secret spy equipment".... but they were also built for export as well (hence the English writing on some of the equipment). They were however, used by the KGB to take pics of people coming and going out of embasies, Soviet border guards and "fishing trawler" crews to take long range photos.

Here's some specs and a bit of history....

This is the first of the modern SLR photosnaipers. It used a modified Zenit E the Zenit ES. It added a connector so that the trigger in the stock could fire the camera. The earliest cases had a brass knob instead of the later plastic. The early metal cases were silver instead of black.

Early models were finished in gray instead of black and had a gray lens cap. The filters for the gray Tair were also gray. It was supplied with a5 72 mm filters all marked KMZ. They were XC10, XC12, XC17, X3C-9 and OC12 in some cases the filters are labled in english

They came with a metal lens cap, 2 screw drivers, a rear lens cap, 2 film cartridges and a 2/58 Helios-44 normal lens.There was a large rubber lens hood for the Tair-3-PHS 4.5/300 mm telephoto. The Tair-3-PHS has a semiautomatic diaphragm and must be cocked for every shot.There is also a rubber cup for the viewfinder.

The last of these units had Zenit Es cameras with a Helios-44-2.
Strangely enough some of the units were sold without cameras. In these cases the lenses would accept T mount adapters.

Technical Specifications

Film Size: 35mm
Image Size: 24x36mm
Dimensions:
height:
width:
depth:
weight: gm
Normal lens:
Lens Mount: m42

I'd like to get $200..... plus shipping and insurance. Sold

Smith & Wesson makes a 1911.......... Sig Sauer makes a 1911..........

.....................when Glock comes out with their 1911, a whole lotta' Glock people are going to need therapy!

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