Ask a photographer...

[ridetheworld]

To be honest it's almost certainly the film which gives you the 'noise' (called grain in analog terms, noise is more to describe distortion from digital sensors), if not then it is from either under or over exposing, or from doing something wrong in the lab (or right if grain is your thing).

I'm almost sure that the camera you use will not affect grain, even my 12 dollar Holgas will throw out perfectly smooth photos with the right film and exposure. As for bokeh, using a fast lens (ie 2.8 or lower), generally gets you nice bokeh though some lenses are better than other. My 1932 Leica IIIa has wonderful bokeh with its 3.5 lens.

Indeed, if you just feel more of a photographer with a Zenit I would say that is a perfectly good reason to buy one. There is not a lot to go wrong with the old film cameras and your biggest concern should be if the shutter speeds are firing correctly. You can measure this accurately down to a certain speed by recording the sound with computer software and then working out the pattern in the sound wave, but you'll need to get it serviced to know for sure. Just running a test film through it will work too.