KMZ short for Krasnogorsk Mechanical Works during the USSR Soviet period was founded in 1942 and started up making scopes, binoculars, and reconnaissance cameras for the war effort.
After the end of WWII, KMZ began making photographic lenses to the same spec.s of Carl Zeiss. At the beginning they also mainly made close copies of exiting cameras from the Germans.
It was in the 1950’s and 60’s that they began to branch out and perform their own R&D to produce new cameras that were farther away from being copies.
KMZ continued to make cameras after the collapse of the soviet union but slowly migrated back towards military production, today they now make military optical products.
