Zenit APK
Zenit APK, MC Helios 44K-4 2.0/58mm, provided by Alexey, arrived on May 22nd, 2009.
Delivered in its original box, with its blue holdall, and its instruction manual, in Russian. According to the notice, no M42 adapter is provided, and there is no external battery-holder too (but a "plug" is supplied).
There were two parallel projects: The APm, with the FZL84 shutter of the AM, and APk with a Copal shutter. The Russian shutter was subcontracted by a watch factory, which ceased to produce it, so only the APK was produced in large series.Big progress compared to AM, the camera can now be used in semi-automatic mode. A place has been reserved on the body for a selftimer LED (and for a button) in the same place as on the AM, but there has been no APK equipped, obviously the Russians have had difficulties with these selftimers.
The Copal EM-578MM shutter. In the top right of the back of the body, the exposure-lock button.
The shutter speed selector is located on the left hand side. Shutter goes 1/2000s. The flash-sync socket is on the side of the pentaprism.
An original location for the memory aid: under the sole of the camera. The place still does not correspond to the dimensions of the film packings sold in our countries.
The battery box can be removed for loading, it is an improvement of the one from the AM. It contains four PX625 with intermediate washers. I removed the cover to show the external power source socket. The two buttons at the bottom left of the lens: bayonet unlocking, and below the depth-of-field tester.