The Rubin-1: A pioneering Soviet zoom lens from the 1960s

By Roman Yarovitsyn

It happened at last! I’ve got into my hands on a Zenit-6 SLR, the dream camera of the character from the Soviet movie ‘Zigzag of Luck’.

In addition to the fact, that it was a most advanced SLR in the USSR (with semi-automatic exposure control), it was equipped with the Rubin-1 lens, the first-ever Soviet zoom lens. Such a fancy camera was just the realms of fantasy for Soviet photographers in 1964, when it released. That’s why Vlad Oreshnikov, who dreamed about a photojournalistic career with this camera went on a rampage and purchased a lottery ticket to launch the plot of  the comedy film ‘Zigzag of Success’.

We must say that Zenit-6 is one of three models, which makes up a family of Soviet SLRs with a leaf shutter. All three released in 1964 and the basic model was the Zenit-4, which was described on Kosmo Foto recently. The Zenit-5 was equipped with electric drive and Zenit-6 was a kit with a Rubin-1 zoom lens instead of the standard Vega-3.

The last model was the most rare: less than 9,000 produced. Technically, the Zenit-6 is identical to the Zenit-4. The only difference is a badge, or more precisely the digit on it: a 6 instead of 4. It looks strange for those who are not familiar with the Soviet photographic market. In the Soviet Union it was not customary to sell a camera body without lens because shortages might mean customers had to wait months for a matching lens.

Nevertheless, a Zenit-E with a Helios-44 or an Industar-50 kept the same name. The Zenit-6 got its name only because the Rubin was so different from the Vega that it forced designers to reconsider the whole kit.

The first Soviet zoom was too bulky and Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant was forced to change the usual ever-ready camera case to a much bigger case. The Rubin was not only huge, it was also heavy; the shoulder strap attaches not to the camera but to lugs provided on the lens barrel. The weight and price of Zenit-6 were so large, that KMZ felt that it needed to entice the prospective customer with the addition of some small pleasant photographic gifts, such as an interchangeable waist-level viewfinder and colour filters.

Unfortunately, my Zenit-6 body appeared not to work and considering the complete similarity of its earlier cousin, I used my verified Zenit-4 from previous test to check the Rubin-1.

Let us look more closely at this lens. Generally accepted, that Rubin-1 (more precise Рубин-1Ц this means central or leaf shutter in Russian) is just a copy of the Voigtländer Zoomar, released in 1959. It is not true. These two lenses have the same principles but different design. The Rubin was designed by GOI (State Optical Institute in Leningrad) under the leadership of the famous Soviet optical designer David Volosov. He recognises that Zoomar was used as the basis and discusses it in his book ‘Photographic Optic’ issued by Искусство (The Art) publishing house in 1978. The Soviet lens was redesigned: as you can see, its glass elements are composed in a completely different layout compared to the Zoomar:

The Rubin barrel differs from the Zoomar in a striking fashion. Instead of push-pull zoom lever, the Soviet lens uses an ordinary rotating ring. Moreover, this optical device from Krasnogorsk is heavier and more bulky than its German counterpart.

Why did Volosov use the Zoomar as the prototype for the Rubin when, in the early 1960s, when there already many zoom lenses being produced over the world? He gives the reason in his book, giving comparative tables (pp. 376, 379). Optical design was developing extremely fast during those years and most of the new lenses were far better than the Zoomar.

My answer to this is only an assumption. One reason must be a very special design used in the Zoomar for matching the lens with the leaf-shuttered “Bessamatic System” applied in the Zenit-4 family. This system, named after the first Voigtländer Bessamatic model was used in many SLRs all over the world equipped with a behind-the-lens leaf shutter and interchangeable lenses.

The zoom lens era started when powerful computers appeared

To prevent vignetting, the exit pupil of all interchangeable lenses for such cameras must be as narrow as possible and close to the shutter leaves. The Zoomar was already designed to meet these requirements and good enough for the Zenit-4 family. The second reason could be the absence of modern computers in the USSR. The zoom lens era started when powerful computers appeared, because hand-made calculations did not allow for the design of such complex multi-lens optical systems.

Under these conditions, it was far more realistic for designers to recalculate an existing and verified design. It cannot be ruled out the opposite situation too; the decision to develop a leaf-shuttered SLRs was made to provide the Rubin lens with a matching camera. We’ll never know which is true.

It’s worth reminding readers, that the Zoomar was not even the first zoom lens in history. The first Cooke zoom lenses were released in the early 1930s for motion picture cameras. They partially replaced the dolly in cinema production and were sometimes used as additional method of expression. For still photography, however, zoom lenses were considered unusable. Precise cropping of pictures was always available in the darkroom.

But the worst thing was the dimensions and weight of these early zooms, even for smaller film formats like Academic 16x22mm. The standard photographic 35mm frame is more than twice as large: 24×36 mm. Movie zooms of that era were so bulky that they could not be used without a heavy tripod. Imagine the equivalent zoom for the larger frame!

The revolution finally happened in the late 1950s when electronic computers were created and the necessary calculations were simplified. The Voigtländer Zoomar appeared compact and lightweight enough to be attached onto a 35mm SLR. The new lens was convenient for shooting slides, which cannot be cropped in post processing. Nowadays, we might stop short of calling the Zoomar and especially the Rubin-1 “compact”. But note, they both have f/2.8 speed and were made more than 50 years ago.

My daily-carry Canon EF 24-105 IS USM looks equal to the Rubin, although it has a maximum speed only f/4.0. It’s just an ordinary lens, and the Zenit-6 with the Rubin attached is not bigger than my usual Canon EOS-1D series DSLRs.

But collectors have to keep a wider shelf for this set-up, almost as much as you would for a Hasselblad or Kiev-88.

Of course, I could not avoid the temptation to shoot at least one roll of film through this lens. My dream not inspired by the old black-and-white comedy ‘Zigzag of Luck’, the personal reason is different.

The first time I saw this camera and lens in the hands of my first photographic teacher. He showed it to me as expensive curio, already completely unusable for commercial photography in the late 1980s. But that first impression about this technical miracle lingered. It was the first-ever zoom lens for still photography, which I was able to touch with my own hands. At that time, foreign zoom lenses were not available in my city.

Two rolls of Fomapan 100 were immediately exposed. The Rubin was designed for reportage photography, my profession, so I took it to capture an event which was not part of that day’s news agenda – the communist meeting dedicated to May Day. It was the perfect setting to test the first Soviet photo zoom in a real “combat situation”.

The Zenit-4 with a Rubin-1 attached is weighty, but this heaviness is very pleasant. Of course, you need to get used to controlling it. The hand continuously attempts to rotate the zoom ring instead of focusing. The wide lens barrel definitely shades selenium light meter cell and you never cannot be sure what the needle in the viewfinder exactly shows: sky brightness or real exposure value. I set the fastest shutter speed of 1/500 to shoot at wider apertures because the Rubin’s automatic iris (by the way, the first ever in USSR too) does not have any depth of field preview.

Moreover, I was interested how this zoom answers to the most difficult optical challenge. The results were not impressive. I don’t know what is the reason, lens design quality or shoddy manufacturing of this particular example. But even closed to f/5.6~8 Rubin did not show acceptable sharpness in the corners of the frame. The closest shooting distance is 1.3m (4.3ft) and even at 80mm focal length you can make only a shoulder portrait.

I must say here, that the Rubin was for a long time the only photographic zoom lens available in the USSR. The Soviet lens market was quite poor and did not spoil the domestic photographers with a wide choice of equipment. My first zoom in 1993 was Soviet “Vario-Zenitar” 25~45 mm and it was full of aberrations. So, I’m not exactly surprised by the Rubin’s quality.

I would not recommend this lens for adaptation for modern mirrorless digital cameras. In addition to its poor optical quality, the Rubin would require complex engineering to create an  adaptor, because the automatic iris doesn’t have an adjustment ring on the barrel; the aperture values are set on the camera.

Instead of practical use with a Zenit-6, the Rubin-1 is one of the most attractive exhibit on any shelf. I never saw a Bessamatic camera in real life, but the tough and brutal lines of Zenit-6 are more pleasant for me than a sleek German profile.

It’s a pity that the leaf-shuttered family of Zenit did not survive more than four years of production. It could be have been a strong alternative to the Zenit-E family.