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Most items of photographic equipment from the Soviet Union are marked with the logo of the factory where they were made.

Quality

Soviet Union best quality logo

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It is suppossed to indicate that the item which stamped with this logo is equal of any other similar item world wide.

Factories[]

Arsenal[]

Zavod Arsenal (Завод Арсенал = Arsenal Factory), Kiev, Ukraine. Arsenal is one of the oldest and most famous industrial factories in the Soviet Union and now Ukraine. This factory has mainly specialized in optical components for the Soviet military and space program. Arsenal also has produced professional-grade photographic cameras. These have included the Kiev 135 film and 120 film series, Salyut series, and some others.

Belomo

BelOMO logo

BelOMO[]

BelOMO (Belorussian Optical and Mechanical Association) was formed in 1971 by the merger of MMZ, the Vilejka Factory, and, apparently, Peleng. BelOMO continues to produce cameras and lenses, cine cameras, accessories, projectors, etc. The plants continue to use their original logos on the products produced in each plant of the association.

Fed-first-logo

FED logo original

FED[]

F.E. Dzerzhinsky Factory, Kharkov, Ukraine. FED are the initials of F. E. Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the NKVD, and the factory was named in his honor. The NKVD was the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (= Народный комиссариат внутренних дел = Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del, (НКВД = NKVD), a secret police organization and predecessor of the KGB. The factory's original workforce was comprised of orphaned youths living and working together in a communal arrangement. After the groundbreaking introduction of the Leica II in 1932, Soviet leaders ordered a halt to the importation of photographic equipment and set the FED factory to the task of creating a Soviet Leica equivalent. Only 18 months later, in 1934, the FED factory began churning out its first clone of the Leica II rangefinder camera. Since then, they have produced millions of cameras, some good and some not so good. The variations in the engravings on the FED camera cover plates are worth a special mention, reflecting historical changes within the Soviet Union.

GOMZ[]

Kmz1logo

KMZ logo early

Kmz3logo3

KMZ logo (1993-Present)

KMZ[]

Krasnogorsky Mekhanichesky Zavod KMZ (Красногорский механический завод = Mechanical Factory of Krasnogorsk), near Moscow. KMZ is known largely for its cameras, including the Iskra, Kristall, Mir, Moskva , Start, Zenith (early series), Zorki series and some others. Some of these were produced in the millions. KMZ also has a large military optics and mechanical engineering division.

Kazanlogo

Kazan logo

Kazan KOMZ[]

Kazan Optical and Mechanical Plant (КOMЗ) began operations in 1940. During the Second World War, KOMZ produced a wide range of optical instruments like binoculars, photographic lenses, photo controlling devices, marine range finders, and dive-bomber scopes. Their camera lenses include the Industar-22, Industar-27, Industar-50, Industar-51, Industar-37, Jupiter 11, Jupiter 37 and Fodis 1K.

LOMO[]

Lomologo

LOMO logo

LZOS[]

Lytkarino Optical Glass Factory (= Лыткаринский завод Оптического Стекла ЛЗОС), was located in Lytkarino, 100 km north of Moscow. It was a KMZ satellite.

MMZ[]

Mmz1logo

MMZ logo

Npz-penta-logo

Plant 69 logo (early NPZ)

Npz-logo

NPZ logo modern

Rostovlogo

Rostov logo

Minsk Mechanical Factory named by S.I. Vavilov (Minskiy Mechanichesckiy Zavod imeni S.I. Vavilova). Founded in 1957, MMZ was located in Minsk, Belarus, approximately 450 miles SW of Moscow. Initial production was optical glass and the Smena-2 camera. In 1971, MMZ became BelOMO.

NPZ[]

Novosibirsk Instrument Factory, Novosibirsk (=Новосибирский приборостроительный завод Нпз = Novosibirskiy priborostroitel'niy zavod NPZ). The original name of the factory was Precision Mechanics Plant, Krasnogorsk and later Plant 69. After WW2 this plant became known as NPZ. The plant was relocated in 1941 from Krasnogorsk to Novosibirsk. The plant produced various military items, and at least one camera, the Vostok. The logo continues used by NPZ, who now specialize in telescope making. The NPZ factory's modern emblem has a slightly altered ratio from the early plant 69 logo.

Rostov ROMZ[]

Rostov produced viewfinders.

Valdai[]

Valdai Optical-Mechanical Factory is located about 400km north-west of Moscow. Very little is known of this plant, but it has been a prolific producer of lenses for KMZ and Zenit. Their SLR lenses carry the Helios name.

File:Leningrad Electronic Factory “Vibrator”.jpg

Vibrator

Vibrator[]

Vibrator (Leningrad Electronic Factory “Vibrator”)

Vilejka[]

Vilejka Factory, or officially OM RUP "ZENIT". In Soviet times, it was known as Vileiskiy Zavod Zenit ad was founded in early 1970 in Vilejka, near Minsk, as a Zenit camera manufacturing factory for MMZ and KMZ. The Vilejka Zenits were apparently intended primarily for domestic use, and earned a poor reputation for quality. Vilejka, has produced the following Zenit models: E, 12SD, TTL, ET, 11, 15, under slightly different designations. Vilejka is apparently still producing Zenits, i.e. the Zenit 130.

Valdai1logo

Vologda logo

Vologda

Vologda logo late

Vologda[]

Vologda produced Mir-1B, Jupiter 21, Helios 44 and 77 lenses.

VOOMP[]

In 1929 the Soviet Council of Labor and Defense decided to combine all optical and mechanical factories of the era under the same name, the "Union Trust of Opto-Mechanical Enterprises" (VTOMP), (= Всесоюзный Трест Оптико-Механических предприятий ВТОМП). In 1930 the VTOMP name was changed to the Union of Optico-Mechanical Companies (VOOMP), (=Всесоюзное объединение оптико-механической промышленности, ВООМП). A small number of cameras and lenses were produced under this name in the pre-war years, including the folder Fotokor-1, and the VOOMP II Pioneer (one of the first Leica II copies made in the Soviet Union). During the transition, VOOMP and very early GOMZ logos can be found together on Fotokor-1 cameras. In 1932, the company was renamed once again to the "State Optical Mechanical Plant (GOMZ).

Comzlogo

ZOMZ logo early

Zomz-logo

ZOMZ logo late

ZOMZ[]

The Zagorsk Optical and Mechanical Plant (ZOMZ=ЗОМЗ), in Zagorsk, Russia, was founded in 1935. The factory has manufactured a wide spectrum of the optical mechanical and optical electronic devices. Lenses that Zagorsk has produced include the Jupiter 3, Orion 15, Mir 1, Mir 1b and Tair 3A.

12cd 01

Zenit 12SD

Links[]

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