Introduced in the 70’s, this iteration of Smena camera named 8M, was one of the most sold 35mm camera manufactured by he Soviets. It was made in the Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) Optical-Mechanical Union factory, abbreviated as ЛОМО/LOMO. I have had this camera since 1988 or 1989, purchased from a nearby shop of where I was living at the time. Shot a few films through it, with no satisfying results, and I put it in storage.
It is a very simple 35mm film camera. Specs are but a few: the lens is a Lomo Triplet T-43 of 40mm f/4, I do not now if this is coated or not. F-stops range from 4 to 16, while the shutter goes from B to 1/250s. This camera is completely mechanical, no batteries but no meter either, so using one would be advisable. The back of the camera is of swivel/hinged door type, no light seals (foam), and a detachable take up spool is inside.
Focusing is manual, distance-type of a thing. Some icons displayed on the lens housing help with achieving good focus, assisted by a distance dial in meters on the outer ring, as well. Exposure wise, there are 5 icons (clouds, overcast, sun, etc), coupled with the shutter speeds underneath the lens, so one can choose to operate via icons or via the shutter speed scale. The inner lens housing has the F-stop dial within, and that can be set by hand.
The small viewfinder is of the simple type, no parallax, no lines for framing your scene. It just does its job, but it is tiny and pretty hard to properly frame a good scene, in my opinion. Another interesting feature is that the f-stop ring is also linked with the ASA/DIN/GOST film setting, so when one sets the f-stop at f16, the indicator goes automatically to ASA 250/DIN 25. I do not see how one can set the f-stop without modifying the film sensitivity.
There is a flash socket, underneath the lens, and a cold shoe on the top plate. Never used it, though. The film advance is by means of a thumb wheel on the right side of the back plate, and also a frame counter (resettable by hand) can be seen on the top back plate as well. The film rewind wheel is in its usual place, left hand.
As the film advance is not connected to the shutter, multiple exposures are easy to take. I forgot to mention that the shutter is set manually, by tripping the old-fashioned lever, on the right side of the lens unit. You have also a tripod socket (1/4) and a cable release socket available, if you need these features.