Where Can I Get A Zorki 4 Repaired

This folio is no longer actively maintained. (Pardon?)

The Zorki-4 (Зоркий-four) is a existent Russian classic. It was manufactured by KMZ, the Krasnogorskij Mekhanicheskij Zavod Imeni S.A. Zvereva (the Krasnogorsk Mechanical Plant, Bearing the Name of Southward. A. Zverev). KMZ was, and notwithstanding is, located in Krasnogorsk, a suburb of Moscow, and fabricated all kinds of optical equipment, both civil and military. The Zorki-iv was manufactured from 1956 to 1973, and evolved out of the Zorki-3S. J.50. Princelle says, in his book, that 1.715.677 were produced over those seventeen years.

The Zorki family started off as copies of the Leica Spiral series, like a lot of Russian cameras did. The basic pre-war Leica design was copied since the thirties (by FED) and afterwards the war continued by KMZ in their Zorki series. 'Зоркий', by the way, ways 'sharp-sighted' in Russian.

After a range of Zorki cameras during the forties and early fifties, KMZ finally cooked the Zorki range downward to the one Zorki-four, which contained all the advantages of its predecessors, such as all the shutter speeds combined in one dial, a variable flash sync filibuster, and (for those days) a reasonable terminate. And when the Zorki-4 was finally taken into product in 1956, it stayed so for seventeen years. Talk about the Russian plan economy...

The Zorki-iv is a small camera, which still looks a bit like its inspirator, the screwmount Leica. My neighbour, a lensman who knows, said it has the feel of the pre-state of war Leicas. More often than not the finish is fine, with all the parts fitting reasonably. On my camera, at that place is only some tolerance between the peak plate and the body, which is quite harmless. I of the things mayhap less elegant, are the cogs and rods inside the flick compartment. The knobs might also have been a bit more shine and elegant, than the big protruding cylinders they are now.

The thick trunk metal is cast aluminium, merely the top plate with the viewfinder is made out of sparse canvass metallic which was pressed into shape. The Zorki-4 is skinned in a fake leather substance, which on my camera has started to pare off.

To load the film, the bottom plate tin can exist taken off by two locking keys. And then the film lip is fed into a loose accept-upwardly spool, then wound tight by the winding knob, and the trunk closed.

The camera has some distinctly old-fashioned features, that are directly borrowed from the pre-state of war Leicas, and certainly misfit a 1960'south camera. For case, the thumb wind past means of an engraved knob. That arrangement is not just very clumsy to use considering the button is also shut to the body, merely also doesn't allow the force it takes to advance the film in this tractor-style camera. And and then there's the rewind button and the dioptre switch: the rewind push button is modest and too impuissant, and the dioptre slide switch gets moved too easily.

Taking photos with the Zorki-4 is a pleasant feel if y'all're used to cameras like these, simply agonizing if you're not. The camera handles like a brick, with very crude controls. It doesn't take a good grip, and feels sturdy and hollow. Where real Leicas feel elegant and have a mechanical souplesse, the Zorki-4 is obviously a crude people'southward camera. Taking photos with one is a challenge: there is no light meter, the viewfinder has odd colours, the shutter speeds are hard to set because of the uneasy going shutter speed dial, and you have to focus separately before each photograph. Then when you press the potent going shutter release button, the rubber shutter volition make a sound like a clappering letterbox. So yous demand to air current the picture with the cursed thumbwheel...

All in all, the Zorki-4 is still a user camera and is capable of taking good pictures (the Jupiter-8 lens supplied, a Zeiss Sonnar clone, is far higher up average), but has some ergonomical flaws, not the least of which is the grip problem on the oval body. But if you don't mind having a real mechanical photographic camera that kicks donkey around your neck, the Zorki-4 is a pleasantly transmission camera to use.

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