About the Zenit AUTOMATs

With the delivery of my Zenit Auto, I engaged in some research (mostly on (†) www.zenitcamera.com). Due to errors in different consulted sites, I thought that the "Automat" were equipped with Motorola microcontrollers provided by France following an obscure agreement, and that the "Auto" was a further development using microcontrollers designed later in USSR.
Here is the result of my research:
Zenit Automat was designed between 1982 and 1985, 68002 copies were produced between 1984 and 1994. Parallel (towards 1987), the manufacturer asked France (Thomson?) to design a more efficient electronic circuit, which was done around a Motorola chip MC 64NC704P4. So France (in this case the company EFCO) did not provide components, it provided complete flexible electronic circuits. This created problems: of liquidity, they had to pay in francs and not in rubles, of customs duties, of service: some of the circuits were defective and had to be returned to France... So the Soviets went on using their own electronics, less efficient (analog circuits instead of a digital microcontroller, requiring a large number of tuning knobs, more "rude" flexible circuit, assembling and soldering by hand).
It seems that most of the Automat using EFCO electronics (producted in 1988-1990?), have been sold in France, under a trade agreement. No details on the quantities produced.

How to make the difference between the versions:
This was actually written in perfectly clear on (†) www.zenitcamera.com/catalog/cameralist.html, provided well displaying the page in Russian, without going through the Google translation; came to the "Zenit A" family , you could read :

ЗЕНИТ-автомат (ЗЕНИТ-auto)
ЗЕНИТ-automat (с французской электроникой)

as "с французской электроникой" means "with French electronics", it becomes very simple:
The "ЗЕНИТ-автомат" and their export version "ZENIT-Auto" (with stylized "A") have homemade electronics,
The "ZENIT-AUTOMAT" have "made in France" electronics.
The "French" electronics has a different behavior of Russian electronics, see the details of the differences at the "Fr" Automat page.