"New" Camera - Zenit

[covenant]

Greetings,
Today arrived my Zenit 12XP. I got it on ebay for 13.00Eur. It comes with a lens that says: PRINZFLEX AUTO REFLEX 1:3.5 f=135mm.
I have never used a reflex camera so I am a bit confused. Tomorrow I will buy film to take it for a test drive but have no clue on what film should I get. The film speed indicator has values for DIN and ASA. Don't the films have it's values in ISO? What kind of film should I buy?
Thanks in advance

 

[MikeBcos]

ASA and ISO are the same, start with something like a 200 ISO film and set the camera for 200 ASA. The Prinzflex lenses are surprisingly good quality, what you have is a nice telephoto, keep hunting on ebay and find yourself a 50mm to go with it. The early Pentax and Praktica M42 screw-mount lenses will also fit, Leica screw-mount will not fit.

Have fun, a Zenit was my first SLR, I wish I still had it!

 

[Steph]

ISO and ASA are the same thing and DIN is an older unit to measure film speed. What type of film are you after? Colour or black and white? Negatives or slides? What kind of pictures are you going to take? For beginners, it might be easier to start with negative films are they are more tolerant towards exposure errors. For colour negative film, you could start with Fujicolor Superia. It comes in different ISO ratings (100, 200, 400, 800 and 1600) depending on what you are going to shoot.

 

[covenant]

Thank you very much for the fast replies.
I was also pleased to see such a nice len in the camera, but after some carefull cleaning I see that it has a little scratch inside. It looks like a very small leaf shape scratch. Let's see how it shows on the pictures.
Tomorrow will be a sunny day and I'll be taking it to a tree forest near my house.
The thing that still confuses me is how do I know if the picture will be allright? THe photometer it has works, but don't know if it's callibrated.
Fot shutter speeds it has B, 30-X, 60, 125, 250 and 500. The aperture ring has 3.5, 4 5.6, 8, 11, 16 and 22.
I guess a good way to see how it looks in the end is to take pictures and write down the used values.
I might be able to get a HELIOS-44M. It's a f=55mm and 1:2 aperture. The seller will let it go for 25Eur. Is this a good deal?
Thank you all once again for the patience. I'm very excited with this oldschool camera

 

[MikeBcos]

Thank you very much for the fast replies.
I was also pleased to see such a nice len in the camera, but after some carefull cleaning I see that it has a little scratch inside. It looks like a very small leaf shape scratch. Let's see how it shows on the pictures.
Tomorrow will be a sunny day and I'll be taking it to a tree forest near my house.
The thing that still confuses me is how do I know if the picture will be allright? THe photometer it has works, but don't know if it's callibrated.
Fot shutter speeds it has B, 30-X, 60, 125, 250 and 500. The aperture ring has 3.5, 4 5.6, 8, 11, 16 and 22.
I guess a good way to see how it looks in the end is to take pictures and write down the used values.
I might be able to get a HELIOS-44M. It's a f=55mm and 1:2 aperture. The seller will let it go for 25Eur. Is this a good deal?
Thank you all once again for the patience. I'm very excited with this oldschool camera

I don't know about the price but that is a good lens. I found the meter on my Zenit to be very accurate, even if it isn't modern film has a lot of latitude. As you said though, if you write down the exposures you use you will be able to see if anything is wrong.