The plastic fantastic Zenit ME35

Zenit ME35

Don’t be fooled by the Zenit name, it has nothing to do with the great Russian KMZ factory - this is a renamed Hanimex from Hong Kong from the 1980’s. That doesn’t take anything away from this little cutie though.

Hanimex 35ee Micro

The lens is a 34mm f3.5, (changed from a 33mm in the Hanimex) that produces great colours that a lomography enthusiast would be over the moon with. I have used the original Hanimex 35ee Micro and had the same results. The ISO selector has limited options, so I shot some expired WH Smiths 200 ISO film at 100, which incidentally gave the best results of any of the six rolls that I picked up… maybe I should have shot them all at 100! Oh well, we live and learn.

My ME35 was picked up for a mere £8 at a camera fair, and was a ‘why the hell not’ kind of purchase, you can’t go to these fairs without coming away with an oddball!

It is so small you can shove it in your pocket, and wait for the light… wait for the light as it is not the most versatile thing having only a small variation in apertures to automatically choose from. Having said that, when the light is right it actually works pretty well for what it is.

Would I recommend getting one? well, why not if lens flare and the lomo look are your thing - it’s a damn lot cheaper than an LC-A