GOMZ

GOMZ Brand Overview

Founded:	1914 — Petrograd, Russian Empire
	(modern day Saint Petersburg, Russia)

Currently:	LOMO PLC

GOMZ Brand History

GOMZ was one of the Soviet Union’s oldest optical factories. GOMZ stands for Gosudarstvennyi Optiko-Mekhanicheskii Zavod, Russian for “State Optical-Mechanical Factory” and is famous for early models of the Lubitel TLR and Smena cameras as well as designing what some believe is the very first 35mm SLR ever: the Sport.

The company was originally established during the Franco-Russian Alliance as a joint French and Russian photographic factory in 1914 on the outskirts of the newly renamed city of Petrograd (both formerly and currently known as Saint Petersburg). When World War I erupted, production switched from cameras and lenses to military optics such as gun sights. After the Great War ended, the company was nationalized and underwent a series of reorganizations that lasted until 1932 when it was finally rechristened as GOMZ.

GOMZ continued to manufacture consumer cameras over the next thirty years or so, including the original Lubitel, Lubitel 2, and several models of the popular Smena series of 35mm viewfinder cameras. Then in 1965, GOMZ underwent yet another restructuring and became known by a new name: the Leningrad Optical Mechanical Association or, as most of us know it, LOMO.

Interested in starting or growing your own collection of GOMZ cameras?
Check eBay to see what’s available.

References:

McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown’s Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 2001-2002. (Grantsburg, WI, USA: Centennial Photo Service, 2001), p 251-254.

“About LOMO,” LOMO PLC, http://www.lomoplc.com/aboutlomoFrames.htm

“LOMO,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOMO

GOMZ-LOMO Voskhod

June 25, 2024April 7, 2015 by ivanlo

The GOMZ-LOMO Voskhod is an unconventional 35mm viewfinder camera introduced in 1964 by GOMZ shortly before it reorganized and became the Leningrad Optical-Mechanical Union, better known as LOMO. The Russian term “Voskhod” means “ascent” or “sunrise,” an appropriate moniker since most cameras produced in the Soviet Union at the time were inelegant, utilitarian, and designed for large-scale mass production. With a relatively small production run of just a little over 59,000 units, the Voskhod is far from the average Soviet camera.

GOMZ Smena-2

June 25, 2024November 18, 2013 by ivanlo

The GOMZ Smena-2 is a plastic 35mm viewfinder camera introduced in 1954 by the Soviet State Optical-Mechanical Factory or GOMZ for short. Curiously, “smena” in Russian translates into “relay,” a fitting moniker since the 25 or so camera models that bear the Smena name were manufactured under three different brands from 1939 until the mid 1990s: MMZ (which eventually became BelOMO), GOMZ and, when GOMZ changed their name, LOMO. Smenas are made almost exclusively from plastic and were priced for mass consumption.