Vintage USSR Cold War Zenit Photo Sniper Kit.
Photo Sniper was an observation kit, produced from 1965 onwards by the special workshop of the Krasnogorski Mekhanicheskii Zavod (KMZ), the Mechanical Factory of Krasnogorsk. Like its predecessors, the FS-1 and FS-2, it has the look and feel of a rifle, which made it ideally suited for observation and surveillance tasks, as it enables the user to shoot steady images of distant or moving objects, such as people or cars passing by. The kit was used by the KGB's 2nd Chief Directorate (counter intelligence), the KGB's 7th Directorate (surveillance), the Border Guards and by East-European intelligence services like the East-German Stasi (MfS).
The kit consists of a 300 mm telephoto lens, mounted on a long boom with a pistol grip. When fully assembled, it looks like an automatic rifle. At the rear end, the boom has a stock mounting that allows it to be pressed firmly against the shoulder, resulting in steady shots without the use of a heavy tripod.
The kit was made to operate with the Zenit ES camera, which has an extra shutter-release button at the bottom, that mates with a pawl on top of the boom, allowing the shutter to be released by pulling the trigger. Kindly note that the kit does not include the camera. However, the Zenit ES does occasionally come up on the market for around R500. Also , the standard lens mount for Zenit cameras is M42, which allows for compatibility with other M42 mount cameras like Praktica, Pentax, and some Ricoh models. Adapters can be used to mount these lenses to Canon, Minolta, Nikon, and Olympus cameras, among others.
Assembly and disassembly is amazingly simple and quick (around 10 seconds). The kit is sold as per the images (kindly view above for more detail). Overall condition is good with some slight usage wear.
Kit includes :
1 x 300mm photo lens (metal)
1 x boom with pistol grip (metal)
1 x shoulder stock (metal)
1 x photo lens cover (rubber)
2 x tools
1 x carry case (metal)
Length (fully assembled) : approx. 60cm
Size (carry case) : 38 x 20 x 16.5cm
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