Smena-7 ..... 35 mm / scale focusing / Newtonian viewfinder
serial # 440942 ......... lens : T-43, f.4.0 / 40 mm
factory : LOMO / Leningrad, USSR ....... production from 1969-1971

Notes: The Smena-7 is the third in a series of Smenas that have a plastic body rather than bakelite, starting with the Smena-5 in 1961. The new body style of the Smena was redesigned by I. Shapiro, also the designer of the Leningrad camera during the 1950s.

This camera is in its original case which has a small sterling silver engraved plaque on the top which reads, loosely translated: "The Gift to Son Tolya on the Day of Ten Years". Although the Smena-7 is a very common Russian camera, this one is very special to me. It brings me back to the magic time when I was ten and my parents gave me my first camera, also simple and made of plastic, and of the absolute wonderment I felt to be able to make an image from real life.