Mir-1 37mm f/2.8

Variants & identification

1. The design is dated 1954 at the State Optical Institute (GOI), calculated by D. S. Volosov, by zenitcamera, camera-wiki and allphotolenses. KMZ's archive puts the start of Krasnogorsk production only at 'the end of the 1950s'. The page uses 1958, the year of KMZ's printed description of the lens and of the Brussels prize, as the family's first year; allphotolenses gives 1958 as the first year of production, while Nigel Borrington writes that production started in 1954. No end date is published for the VOMZ or Arsenal lenses.
2. The Mir-1 won no prize of its own at Brussels. Zenitcamera says a set of lenses that included the Mir-1 received the Grand Prix at the 1958 World's Fair, and the lens was awarded a second-class diploma of the VDNKh in 1959. Camera-wiki says some KMZ lenses and many ZOMZ ones are engraved GRAND PRIX Bruxelles 1958. Nigel Borrington writes that every Mir-1 made after the fair carries the inscription, which camera-wiki's 'some' contradicts; the engraving is in any case not a special edition.
3. Where the design came from: zenitcamera says it was developed on the basis of the Flektogon scheme and notes reports of a lens called 'ФК 2,8/37' (Flektogon Krasnogorsk). Marco Kröger, working from Jena's own data sheets, calls the Mir-1 the Soviet copy (Nachbau) of the Flektogon and says it rests on an earlier stage of the Jena design, without the lanthanum crowns Jena had adopted by then; he adds that the real focal length of the Flektogon is also close to 37 mm, so the Soviet engraving is the more honest one. Wikipedia gives the Mir-1's focal length as 37.5 mm, against KMZ's 37.38 mm.
4. Flange distances by KMZ, via zenitcamera: Mir-1 (M39) 45.2 mm, Mir-1-автомат 44.0 mm, Mir-1В (M42) 45.5 mm. KMZ's vertex focal lengths are −3.49 mm front and 37.17 mm back, and 52.8 mm from the first to the last surface. Weights by version: KMZ 200 g for the M39 Mir-1, Osborne 224 g for an Automat; Kamerastore (182 g) and allphotolenses (240 g) give dealer and database figures for the black M42 lens that disagree with each other. The blade count is left blank: neither KMZ nor zenitcamera gives one.
5. Zenitcamera also says the Mir-1 was made at the Jupiter works in Valdai and illustrates one from a Molotok.ru auction, without its mount or dates; camera-wiki attributes the Mir-1Sh to the same works. The Valdai lens has no variant row until its mount is known.
6. Lenses sold rehoused for cinema, in PL or Canon EF mount with geared rings ('Iron Glass', 'cine mod'), are later conversions of the M42 Mir-1V, not factory versions.

• Mir-1 (Мир-1), KMZ, M39 Zenit thread: KMZ's archive, as zenitcamera presents it, dates Krasnogorsk production from the end of the 1950s to 1963 and cites the chief engineer's order no. 8 of 30 January 1963 ending production of the Mir-1, Jupiter-9, RO-51-1, Orion-15 and A4-MS-2. KMZ gives 200 g, 62 mm long with caps, 59 mm across the barrel, a light transmission of 0.78 and a specified resolution of 45 lines/mm at the centre and 23 at the edge. Zenitcamera also pictures a lens from the experimental batch. M39 Zenit and M42 bodies share the flange distance, so camera-wiki notes that this lens works on an M42 body through a plain thread adapter.
• Mir-1 (Мир-1), ZOMZ, M39 Zenit thread: Camera-wiki says production of the silver M39 lens passed to ZOMZ at Zagorsk (now Sergiev Posad) after 1960; zenitcamera says the 1960s and illustrates a ZOMZ lens from Alexander Shultz's book on the M39 Zenits. KMZ's own order ending its production is dated January 1963, so the two factories' runs probably overlapped; no source gives ZOMZ's dates or numbers.
• Mir-1V (Мир-1В), VOMZ, M42: Zenitcamera calls it a modified version made at VOMZ in Vologda in the last years of production and pictures a late lens from VOMZ's own catalogue alongside an earlier one; it gives no dates. Keith Nickoson writes that VOMZ made optics for KMZ from 1971 and that his copy was made in 1986. Matt Hooker, in an owner review on allphotolenses, writes that on a full-frame DSLR the rear of the lens touches the mirror at infinity unless it is modified. Kamerastore's product page gives 10 blades, a 59 × 52 mm barrel, 182 g and six elements in four groups; allphotolenses gives 240 g and, in different places on the same page, 8 and 10 blades. Neither weight is a factory figure.
• Mir-1Sh (Мир-1Ш), 'school' version: Zenitcamera lists the Ш index and illustrates a lens from an auction on Molotok.ru, without saying who made it or in what mount. Camera-wiki describes it as black with an M42 mount and, citing Nathan Dayton's Communist Cameras site, attributes it to the Valdai works; it suggests it may have been a cheap version or one for educational supply. The mount and maker are therefore camera-wiki's, not KMZ's.
• Mir-1A (Мир-1А), adapter-ring mount: Zenitcamera lists the A index and illustrates the lens from the 1983 catalogue 'Optical consumer goods' of the Moscow Dom Optiki. An MFLenses owner in 2010 thought it was made only in about 1972–73/74 and by ZOMZ rather than Arsenal, but gave no source, and the 1983 catalogue photograph argues for a longer life. He also wrote that it focuses closer than the Mir-1B (he gives 0.24 m against 0.7 m); no factory figure confirms it. The same owner found what looked like two sets of aperture blades, about 1 mm apart, inside his lens. Allphotolenses' page for the Mir-1A mixes in figures from another lens (a 400 mm focal length) and is not relied on here beyond the filter size.
• Mir-1Ts (Мир-1Ц), KMZ, Zenit-4 line: KMZ made this version for the leaf-shutter Zenit-4 line. Zenitcamera's photograph comes from a Mashpriborintorg export brochure for the Zenit-6. Camera-wiki says the lens has its own shutter; zenitcamera says only that it was a version with a central shutter. Neither gives dates or numbers.
• Mir-1 Automat (Мир-1-автомат), Arsenal, Kiev-10 / Kiev-15 bayonet: Zenitcamera names the Mir-1-автомат among the Mir-1 versions, made by the Arsenal association in Kyiv, and illustrates it from the 1983 Dom Optiki catalogue; it gives no dates. Christopher Osborne weighed his at 224 g. On his Kiev-10 the 37mm lens showed heavy vignetting in the viewfinder, which it did not on his Kiev-15; he had not yet seen whether it showed on film. The lens is one of the five Automat lenses Osborne counts for the system, with the Mir-20, Helios-81, Jupiter-9 and Jupiter-11.

Specifications

Formula

Six elements in five groups (KMZ, via zenitcamera; Kamerastore's product page gives 6/4), calculated at GOI in 1954 on the basis of the Flektogon scheme (zenitcamera); a retrofocus wide-angle whose front element is a negative meniscus (allphotolenses; Wikipedia); Kröger calls it the Soviet copy (Nachbau) of an earlier development stage of the Flektogon, without its lanthanum crown glasses

Designed by

Volosov D. S. — calculation at GOI, 1954 (Волосов Д.С.)

Construction

6 elements / 5 groups

Aperture range

f/2.8–f/16

Min. focus

0.7 m

Filter

0.5 mm thread pitch, Special M49 × 0.5 screw-in, or 51 mm slip-on (KMZ) (Mir-1 (Мир-1), KMZ, M39 Zenit thread) · 49 mm (Mir-1 (Мир-1), ZOMZ, M39 Zenit thread, Mir-1Sh (Мир-1Ш), 'school' version, Mir-1Ts (Мир-1Ц), KMZ, Zenit-4 line) · 0.75 mm thread pitch, M49 × 0.75 screw-in, or 51 mm slip-on (KMZ) (Mir-1V (Мир-1В), VOMZ, M42) · 52 mm, 52 mm, by an owner on the MFLenses forum and by allphotolenses (Mir-1A (Мир-1А), adapter-ring mount) · 52 mm, 52 mm (Osborne), where the other Automat lenses except the Mir-20 take 49 mm (Mir-1 Automat (Мир-1-автомат), Arsenal, Kiev-10 / Kiev-15 bayonet)

Years manufactured

1958

Country

Russia (KMZ, Krasnogorsk; ZOMZ, Zagorsk; the Jupiter works, Valdai; VOMZ, Vologda); Ukraine (Mir-1 Automat, Arsenal, Kyiv)

Coating

Coated (просветлённая оптика), by KMZ's description; no multicoated version is recorded

What reviewers say

• Sergei Borodin (allphotolenses) (blog) — A rather sharp lens that keeps a sense of volume, but poor against back and side light and with mediocre internal blackening. He reports that many photographers rate the early M39 lenses with the Brussels inscription above the later mass-produced ones.
• Keith Nickoson (blog) — A 1986 Mir-1B adapted to EF and used on a Sony A7s: wide open the contrast drops and the edges soften steeply while the centre stays sharp, which he enjoys as character; by f/4 the effect is gone.
• Nigel Borrington (blog) — A Mir-1B he has owned since his first SLR in the 1980s, used on a 24-megapixel Pentax K-3: smooth focusing and aperture rings, sharp and contrasty black-and-white landscapes, and flare he likes. He still has full confidence in it.

History

This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Example photos

Sample photo wanted — shot with a Mir-1 37mm f/2.8? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

• Lens MIR-1 automat 2.8/37mm Mount Kiev-automat copy Flektogon for SLR Kiev10/15 — $59.99 · eBay · likely automat
• 2x Two Soviet USSR Mir-1v Mir-1B 2,8/37 lens blocks for repair. Price for two — $69.50 · eBay · likely mir-1V
• Mir-1 Automat 2,8/37 Kiev 10 11 15 — €70.00 · eBay · likely automat
• KMZ MIR-1В 37mm f:2.8 M42 (L55) — €80.00 · eBay NEW
• MIR-1 Automat Arsenal Wide Angle Lens for Kiev 10,11,15 — $89.00 · eBay · likely automat
• Mir-1 V 2.8/37 Black GPB Lens (Technical) — $100.00 · eBay
• Defect! MIR 1V (B) W Cyrillic 1B 2.8/37mm Wide Angle lens M42 #85024144 — $104.00 · eBay · likely mir-1V
• Mir-1B 37mm 2,8 Objektiv Automat mit Bajonett für die Kiev UdSSR — €95.00 · eBay
• mir 1b 37mm f2.8 — £89.97 · eBay · likely mir-1V
• Vintage Soviet Mir-1 Automat 37mm f/2.8 Wide Angle Lens Kiev-10 Kiev-15 — $119.00 · eBay · likely automat
• Soviet Mir-1 Automat 37mm f/2.8 Wide Angle Lens Kiev-10 Kiev-15 Bayonet — $119.00 · eBay · likely automat
• Mir-1 2.8/37 Black GPB Lens (Technical) — $120.00 · eBay
• Mir-1B (1V, 1W) 37mm f/2.8 M42 lens — €110.00 · eBay · likely mir-1V NEW
• Very rare Lens Mir-1 Automatic World-1 (Мир-1 Автомат) 37mm USSR 28/37 for Kiev — $130.00 · eBay
• MIR-1 AUTOMATIC 37mm F2.8, KIEV 10 - KIEV 15 MOUNT — €118.80 · eBay
• MIR-1 37mm F2.8 Bajonett Objektiv für Kiev 15 etc. Lagernr u18949 — £107.09 · eBay
• Mir - 1B 37 mm f 2.8 M42 mount, tappi — €129.00 · eBay · likely mir-1V
• Mir-1 Sh (Мир-1Ш) 37mm/2.8 wide angle soviet flektogon M42 — €130.00 · eBay
• Nice! MIR 1V (B) W Cyrillic 1B 2.8/37mm Wide Angle lens M42 #88060998 — $144.00 · eBay · likely mir-1V NEW
• Russia Mir 1B 37mm F/2.8 for M42 単焦点レンズ — ¥21,810 · Yamada Camera (山田写真機店) · likely mir-1V NEW

Listings updated 2026-11-10. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.