Well Hi There Comrade, the Zorki 4 Rangefinder

February 17, 2020

Long time ago I had a Kiev 3 rangefinder, my brother Alex was on former Soviet Union camera kick and since we're each other's enabler, I wound up with a Kiev kit. Shot with it for a while, and then traded whole thing off for a Nikkor 105 2.5 Ais telephoto lens. Decade rolls by and a friend had some surplus Soviet rangefinders, Zorkis, a 2S and a 4 he wanted to re-home. So I took them, a few more years roll by and I pop some Svema 100 I was gifted by Alex Luyckx to try it out.

Ok first off I'm not a fan of Ukranian polyester based film which feel tissue thin, in fact tissues have more backbone, and Rollei Retro and Japan Camera Hunter Street Pan 400 are thick in comparison. They are a royal pain to load onto Patterson reels and can wrinkle easily. Rant concluded.

The Zorki 4 had a long production run with roughly 1.7 million units made from 1956 to about 1973 by Krasnogorsky Mekhanichesky Zavod near Moscow. Over the course of its production run the Zorki 4 had many variations best outlined on Soviet Cams if you want to go deep. As with any former Soviet Union photography equipment, quality control was hit and miss depending on how far behind they were with production quotas.

Shooting with the Zorki 4 is like any other coupled rangefinder camera, the viewfinder is only set up for 50mm lenses so you want to shoot wider or a telephoto, you will need an accessory viewfinder for the appropriate lens. A really cool design feature found with the Zorki and Fed rangefinders, a built in diopter for those who need glasses. A little lever under the rewind knob dials it right in.

My Zorki came with a Jupiter 8 50 f2 lens in classic Leica M-39 thread mount which means I can use this lens with my Leicas with an M mount adapter or on my Canon P. While the lens is a Leica M-39, the optical formula is classic Zeiss Sonnar courtesy tooling and plans taken from the Zeiss Jena facility at the end of World War II. I might grab another Jupiter 8 for my other rangefinders when I want something truly old school looking when rendering a negative.

As with any FSU camera, if you want to adjust the shutter speed, you have to cock the shutter first, ALWAYS cock the shutter, that sunk in? Good, because if you don't you will wreck your camera, the end, the same can be said for Barnack Leicas too. Speaking of shutter speeds they go from bulb to 1/1000 of a second.

The big question, should I get one? Well, if you like rangefinders, a Zorki or Fed is must in any camera collection. I wouldn't call this a beginner camera just starting in film photography but a really neat rig for a an intermediate to experienced shooter looking for something cool to shoot with.

Now where to buy, I recommend three sellers, Asterlicks on Ebay out of Ukraine, Oleg's Classic Cameras in Russia and Fedka out of New York. All three are good vendors.

Camera: Zorki 4, Jupiter 8 50 f2 lens.
Film: Svema 100, ID-11 Stock.