The Zenit-E was first produced in 1965, and signalled the start of the second generation of SLRs made by the giant Moscow-based camera maker Krasnogorsk Mechaniski Zavod(KMZ). The factory had been making SLRs for more than a decade, using the chassis of the Zorki Leica-copy rangefinder as the springboard. The first of these cameras, the Zenit, appeared in 1950. It looked very much like a Zorki rangefinder, albeit with a viewing prism above the lens. A series of prototypes (including one with a selenium meter built into the prism) were produced before the first proper production camera appeared in 1955 – the Zenit-C. It sported a lens mount based on the Leica screw mount (in fact you can mount Leica screw mount lenses on the Zenit, though you can’t focus with it).