HeHe, a Zenit E was my first SLR and used to take good images, I shot only B&W with it - couldn't afford colour!! I seem to remember the film sprocket used to tear through the film perforations if you didn't load it just right...so you would end up with 36 exposures on the first frame and blank on the other 35!! I always fancied the photo-sniper attachment though ;-)) BTW, almost forgot, great portrait of Christine!
You can also see them in the window of the Secret Police Museum in Leipzig - actually, they were developed for photography in the field, combat and otherwise. My granddad got it for birdspotting, it was more likely the only camera around to buy, perhaps Pentacon/Practica had a bad year of socialist production.
The Zenit ES is a modified Zenit E, with release possible on the camera body as well as the rifle trigger. Focussing on the accompanying 50mm prime is done the usual way, but the TAIR 300mmlens is focused on the ring that Christine is focussing on with her left hand - so you can shoot in a sniper-like fashion.
B&W is known to give excellent sharp results, but colour gives fringing and a lot of artefacts, and in thsi specimen the meter ain't working, so I'll put some B&W through once I a) got this thing to the UK without a lead enema from security at the airport b) loaded some nice sturdy B&W film and processed it.
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