START Russian 35 mm SLR camera

The Start is a very well made and interesting Single Lens Reflex camera manufactured by KMZ. Start camera has a Chrome and black body covered with black nylon fabric. There is a removable back with a film pressure plate made of black glass. The shutter is made of cloth and travels horizontally. The shutter has speeds of B,1000,500,250,60,15,8,4,2,1 and 30 and has flash synchronization for bulbs and electronic flash. There are two receptacles for flash on the left front of the camera. On the left front of the camera is a self timer. The rewind knob has a film reminder on the top. The rapid advance lever has the film counter on top , is tipped with a small knob. The viewfinder has a dual prism rangefinder in the central focusing area and a removable pentaprism. On the back of the camera is a small round button for the pentaprism lock. There was also a waist level finder available as an option. The Start has a unique breech-locking bayonet for a lens mount. Only the Helios-44 58mm f2 was made in this mount. This lens is unique in that it has an extension of the shutter release built in to provide f-stop automation. There was an adapter ring available to adapt m39 lenses to this camera but no dedicated lenses. The Start was meant use either of two film transport schemes. The film was to be used in the normal manner from cassette to spool and rewind or to transport film from cassette to cassette. The cassette to cassette system required that a mechanism to open the cassettes be built into the back latches and a film knife was also built into the camera. When the rewind button id depressed and the film advance is used in this mode the film is advanced but the shutter is not cocked. This allows the film to be wound into the cassette after use of the film knife.