Another Zorki C..

[lloydy]

Thank's Stephen, that will get this old FED working nicely.

[Stephen]

The Zorki C camera with a later Industar F2.8 lens, the early one is proving difficult to restore, it needs a new front filter ring turned up in the lathe. The shutter is now modified to give a softer release, and the rangefinder adjusted to work with Leica lenses accurately. The standard lenses cam ring has been adjusted to match Leica. They were out only a tiny amount.
There's a film being processed at the moment, and I'll post some sample shots, using the cosmetically bad, but fully working early F3.5 Industar.
Now a nice camera to use, quiet and should give good film results, the lens were tested on Digital first.

Stephen.

[truls]

It is really a handsome camera, what a great work you have done!
Some of the lenses are labeled 53mm, some 55mm. Is this correct and are the lenses the same? Just labeling differences or is the focal length adjusted according to labeling?

[Stephen]

I think they are accurately marked, the Russian usually got it right, but they had small changes all the time in production, never announcing the changes. I have seen Industars of 50, 53, 55, 58, all the same basic optical formulae, which was claimed to be a Russian design, not a copy of the Elmar. The main change was the period they used lanthanum glass, and late items had a form of multi coating. Lack of quality control was the bane of these lenses, some very bad, so excellent, usually quite good.
The F2 and the F1.8 standard were both a close copy of the Zeiss designs acquired as war reparations, as was the 35mm F2.8 and the 28mm. The 135mm lenses were claimed to be a Russian design. The Mirror lenses were all unique Russian design and build.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

The Zorki C is nearly restored, a problem came up when re-assembling the lot, as the shutter release pressure altered when the bottom plate was fitted, and locked in to place!

With the bottom cover off, all was delightfully smooth, and the shutter was quieter, but with the cover on, it became stiffer and a louder "clack" as the shutter operated. The release needed more pressure, and became much less predictable in operation.

The shutter release rods where free, lubricated, and smooth, and the bottom of the release rod did not strike the bottom cover, except after the shutter has already been released on the down stroke.

But the bottom cover plate had a very slight end to end bow in it, and needed mild pressure applied as the lock at the other end was turned.

The bottom plate was carefully flattened, and this reduced the pressure needed on the shutter release, quite how seemed a mystery.

I wondered if the pressure from closing the bottom lock was somehow distorting the whole camera body, or the shutter crate, but it all seems fine as this is a 1950's model with the better pressure die-cast body and a die-cast shutter crate, which is very rigid and accurately made. Early Zorki and Fed versions all suffer with "soft" cast bodies and pressed steel shutter crates, which can more easily distort.

It finally turned out to be the wind on spool! It is a bit over length,and is trapped too tight when the bottom plate is put into place. This increases the strain on the wind on gears, and stiffens the shutter release rod that runs from top to bottom of the camera.

I had another look at the bottom plate and the brass pin that acts as the pivot for the take up spool is bolted on to an area of the bottom plate that was not truly flat, but dished inwards slightly, so it was carefully flattened and a skim taken off the end on the spool, and hey presto, a smoother shutter release, and the Zorki freely winds on now, as well.

Not quite as quiet as a Leica, but it's very near now, and a nice smooth predictable release.

I'll run off a test negative Fuji film in the next few days, the Industar lens is a bit dog eared, but works fine on the OM Pen PM-1, so should work even better with proper film. There's a spare 50mm F2, and a 35mm F2.8 which can be used as well.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

It may have gained a smooth release, but on trying to load film I discovered the wind on spool is slightly out of line with the sprockets.

It looked as if a replacement die-cast spool from the later Feds was fitted, but it looks like the original brass spool once got stuck in place, and it was forced out with pliers, distorting the brass spool end a little, which is a bearing on the design, just like Leica.

This makes the spool a tight fit, when it should be relatively loose on the wind on shaft, bar driven by a pin inside the spool, engaging with the die cast clutch centre on the shaft for re-winding the film.

The hole in the brass has been skimmed out on the lathe, and the bearing polished, and it is now working at last. This jam explains the poor fit of the spool jamming the release a bit. Basically a lot of fine tuning to get the best from the Zorki C.

So a final clean up an careful assembly, then the test film......

Stephen.

[Deleted]

Apr 12, 2013 11:01:30 GMT -5 truls said:

> As for what to get for a virgin: Be careful of the pre war FEDs and the ones made just after the war as their lens mount threads > weren't standard Leica.

I saw a camera called Fed Zarya, not a rangefinder, but guess-the-distance camera, it had an Industar 61-something, is it any good lens? It looks like a good camera, much simpler than a Zorki/Fed - less prone to failure?

Zorki had a similar camera--the Mir (peace) --a stripped down Zorki 4 without the low speed shutter train and lacking 1/1000 sec (actually the speed is there, just not marked on the dial). The Mir was only built from 1959 to 1961. Isaak Maizenberg, who is the guru of Soviet camera repair, said the Mir is one of the most reliable FSU camera. BTW, Maizenberg's camera repair manual (English version) is available here as a PDF file
www.ussrphoto.com/wiki/default.asp?WikiCatID=39&ParentID=4&ContentID=1555

I paid nearly $100 for the hard copy 10 years ago but later sold it to someone willing to pay twice the price I paid!

[Stephen]

Hopefully the last restoration work, the film take up spool now fits loosely on the wind on shaft, after a lathe session, and all the release parts are now polished to a mirror finish. The shutter release is now the same pressure with body open or closed! And it is even smoother with the polishing of the shafts and pins.

The film rewind is now easy, no excess drag, bar the clutch spring, as designed.

A different shutter sound compared to the Leica, but the Zorki is quieter at 1/100th or less. I have cleaned up the dog eared Industar 52mm F3.5, it polished up quite well. Only has a minor scratch on the glass, no fungus or dirt, it has been internally cleaned though for dust.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

A much better shot outdoors, the Russian Zorki C, with the now tidied up original Industar 1:3.5 50mm lens, and new aluminium hood made especially to suit the Industar lens, mainly to tidy up the rather dog eared edge of the filter mount. This has been re-machined as well, but the marks were deep. I will do a matching lens cap as soon as I have more spare aluminium billets.

The hood has been made to a size and diameter that ensures a clear view from the viewfinder and rangefinder windows, without the cut-outs that Leica use these days to clear the view.

Very pleased with the appearance and performance now, the shots are with the lens on PM-1, but a proper film is being run through at the moment as well. Not at all bad for £14.....





The flower shots were at F5.6, and the depth of field a bit tight on the second shot, the flowers are quite tiny, but hairs on the bud and spider webs show. Taken with PM-1, so at 100mm equivalent.

Stephen.

[Stephen]

May 16, 2013 11:56:59 GMT -5 wayne said:

Apr 12, 2013 11:01:30 GMT -5 truls said:

> As for what to get for a virgin: Be careful of the pre war FEDs and the ones made just after the war as their lens mount threads > weren't standard Leica.

I saw a camera called Fed Zarya, not a rangefinder, but guess-the-distance camera, it had an Industar 61-something, is it any good lens? It looks like a good camera, much simpler than a Zorki/Fed - less prone to failure?

Zorki had a similar camera--the Mir (peace) --a stripped down Zorki 4 without the low speed shutter train and lacking 1/1000 sec (actually the speed is there, just not marked on the dial). The Mir was only built from 1959 to 1961. Isaak Maizenberg, who is the guru of Soviet camera repair, said the Mir is one of the most reliable FSU camera. BTW, Maizenberg's camera repair manual (English version) is available here as a PDF file
www.ussrphoto.com/wiki/default.asp?WikiCatID=39&ParentID=4&ContentID=1555

I paid nearly $100 for the hard copy 10 years ago but later sold it to someone willing to pay twice the price I paid!

Thanks for the reference, I had not been able to find or afford a copy in the past, great book, many thanks,

Stephen.

[Stephen]

Taken with the 50mm F3.5 Industar, not bad performance!


Dandelion Sead head
Stephen

[Stephen]

Old brick wall, again Industar, plus extension ring
Stephen.

[olroy2044]

Not bad performance, indeed! Very nice

Roy

[lloydy]

That's a keeper! Well worth restoring and servicing.

[Stephen]

The more I examine and work on the Zorki and Fed models, the basic fact is they are not bad cameras at all, simply that age has not been kind to some examples, and in the UK the early ones were all imported personally, without support from an official UK importer, and they got lots of pretty amateurish attention when they went wrong. I have seen bad lenses, but again I wonder if they had been got at, more than badly made in the first place.

The Russians always claimed the exported cameras were as good as Leica... frankly, an unbelievable claim, when you know Leica engineering standards, but in photographic terms, the results are nearly the same!

The camera that had troubles in the 1970's was the Zenit reflex, but an awful lot of the problems were down to the user, as the very low price attracted first time users, and they got a very steep learning curve with the cameras.

The photographic shop I worked for sold hundreds each year, we got a few complaints, but it was nearly always the way the camera was used, too low shutter speeds, or setting too large an aperture, or users with glasses having problems viewing the screen. Almost every time I ran a test film through the Zenit cameras, they worked 100%, especially with colour slide.

Too many customers just used Colour Negative film, and did not realise just how unpredictable the print quality could be. Often print films would be picked up and the customer did not complain, despite the fact we knew the shots were odd, as all films were checked. They simply went along with the work, even when we pointed out issues not down to the user, but they left the general complaints till very much later.

We tried our best to counter the print problems, but how can you guide a customer who accepts the work without comment. To help we often displayed good shots from the Russian equipment,(and Pentagon), and used it carefully to compare to the customers shots, and show how to improve them, and also just plain request re-printing when it was the processor slipping up. Always we tried to guide serious users to use Kodachrome slide film, it worked!!!

The constant headache was that Kodak and the negative processors had no idea what standard of camera was being use for the negatives they got to print, it could be a snap camera or a Nikon, they got the same treatment, and it showed!!

The Russian camera that had the worst reputation for reliability was the Kiev, the shutter design was just too complex, and even in the hands of Zeiss Contax users still gave troubles. Mind you the lenses were OK, or even better than older pre-war Zeiss!.

As soon as the weather settles to summer proper I will run decent Fuji neg through the cameras, but at least it is possible to use on Digital as well.

Stephen.