Kalimar Inc. was an American distributor founded by Bob Lipsitz in 1952. It started importing Aires 35 cameras from Japan to the U.S.A… It distributed a number of rebadged cameras from Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Germany and the Soviet Union. It was acquired by Tiffen in 1999.
The Russian Zenit EM 35mm SLR was part of a long running series of Zenit cameras and was an upgraded version of the Zenit E, adding automatic diaphragm stop-down with appropriate M42 lenses and a shutter release separated from the winding lever and film counter. The KMZ Zenit EM was produced from 1972 to 1984 and sold by Kalimar during those years as the SR300, and was also badged by KMZ as the Cosmorex SE. They were available in both black and chrome finish. The cameras usually came with a Helios-44M 2/58 and had shutter speeds of 1/30 of a second to 1/500 of a second plus B. Units produced of the Зенит-EM are reported to be 979,140 just short of a million.