An April fool's joke?

UPDATE Friday 2nd April, 2004

Was it or wasn't it?
An April all fools' day joke, yes, the Zenit KM-D1 is, indeed non-existent, but it was great fun putting the spoof story together and a very reliable sources (and I'm not joking any more!) informed me that a fellow-journalist on one prestigious UK newsstand photography magazine, that shall remain nameless, was indeed taken in and researched the story further.

The story even reached The Economist
A search on the Web this morning found that the story had also found its way onto a syndicated news feed concerning Russian current affairs news, even appearing on The Economist newspaper's Web site. We also found it discussed on a number of forums.

Nobody who responded to the story via the feedback link provided in our own story or on our own discussion forum seemed to be obviously taken in, hook, line and sinker, but it was interesting to see that some were quite keen on the idea of an affordable, barebones digital camera like the one we invented in the form of the Zenit KM-D1.

Zenit is still in business
A surprise for some was that russian camera maker, Zenit, is still in business. I actually based the specifiation of the KM-D1 closely on a real and current Zenit model, the Zenit KM, an all-electronic film SLR that retails in the US for around $135 (about £70, or €105). One UK importer is the House of Optical and if you click here you can see the real thing.

So, how about it Zenit - are you reading this? There is a market out there for the taking!