Old Zorki 35mm

gsxr1

Found this in the attic. Nice bit of weight in it. Mint condition.

But how does one work it? I see the aperture settings and the shutter speed. But how do you focus and know that the shutter/aperture is correct .

Far cry from my dslr.




Might buy some film for the craic.

DaireQuinlan

It's a rangefinder, you should see a superimposed double image in the middle of the viewfinder. Focusing correctly should result in the double image lining up. It's meterless, so you don't know if the set aperture/shutter speed is correct :-) You can get good at estimating exposures yourself or you can use your DSLR as an expensive light meter (or buy a light meter of course ).

It's quite a nice litte FSU rangefinder. One of the later zorkis ( I think it postdates the zorki 6)

Here, courtesy of the ever useful butkus, is the manual:

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/russian/zorki_4k/zorki_4k.htm

gsxr1

This could be a bit of a challenge.
Im taking my father a trip down memory lane .

He has some cracking Isle of Man TT race shots with it.

He forgets how its all done now. But he says he used guide lines printed on a bit of paper that came with the film. But every shot had to count as it was expensive to use .

im off to Boots tomorrow to but some black and white film.

DaireQuinlan

gsxr1 wrote: »

This could be a bit of a challenge.
Im taking my father a trip down memory lane .

He has some cracking Isle of Man TT race shots with it.

He forgets how its all done now. But he says he used guide lines printed on a bit of paper that came with the film. But every shot had to count as it was expensive to use .

im off to Boots tomorrow to but some black and white film.

Get some straight colour or CN black and white (B&W that can be processed in normal photo labs). Getting proper B&W processed anywhere can be a bit of a PITA. Also, don't go to boots. Where are you, Dublin ? If so go to gunns or the camera exchange or photocare on abbey street and ask them what their cheapest film is, or if they have any out of date. It'll do to experiment with.

magicbastarder

john gunn would also probably be happy to help figure out how it works!

bernard0368

I have one of them, must take it out again. Pay attention to the manual Daire linked. Section 5.2 I think, it has do do with setting shutter speed. Otherwise it is a great camera.

DaireQuinlan

bernard0368 wrote: »

I have one of them, must take it out again. Pay attention to the manual Daire linked. Section 5.2 I think, it has do do with setting shutter speed. Otherwise it is a great camera.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that ...

NEVER SET THE SHUTTER SPEED WITHOUT COCKING THE SHUTTER FIRST !!

PopeBuckfastXVI

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

Oh yeah, I forgot about that ...

NEVER SET THE SHUTTER SPEED WITHOUT COCKING THE SHUTTER FIRST !!

I read that online before, I was thinking about putting an offer in on the one that's on adverts at the moment, but that made it seem like a pretty inconvenient camera to use, one wrong (which would be normal on any other camera) move and you've bricked it.

Does it make a big difference?

bernard0368

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

Does it make a big difference?

No, I never felt it was an issue. if you do it by accident do this

"First, lift the knob and turn it clockwise as far as possible before winding, setting the last possible speed. Wind very gently and feel for extra resistance. If there is any, STOP winding and lift-and-turn clockwise again. Keep going like this until the shutter is cocked (it should end up on 1/30) then set as desired."

Oh a light meter may not go to waste when using this camera.

gsxr1

I got some BW400cn Kodax film .
I am away on hols in the North and nowhere near dublin. 3 rolls of 36 for 12 pounds. Enough to get me going.

The manual tells me a little about the depth of field settings. But nothing about what shutter speed to use or what f stop to use.

If i focused on an item around 3 meters away with my dslr, and copied the values onto the Zorki, would this give me the correct setting to use?

DaireQuinlan

gsxr1 wrote: »

I got some BW400cn Kodax film .
I am away on hols in the North and nowhere near dublin. 3 rolls of 36 for 12 pounds. Enough to get me going.

The manual tells me a little about the depth of field settings. But nothing about what shutter speed to use or what f stop to use.

If i focused on an item around 3 meters away with my dslr, and copied the values onto the Zorki, would this give me the correct setting to use?

Just point your DSLR at whatever you're taking a photograph of and copy the values and you should be good to go presuming that the lens on your DSLR is roughly equivalent focal length and you have the iso set to the same value as you're shooting your film at (400 in this case). With negative film it'll be grand. Bear in mind that the speeds on the zorki are probably all over the place anyhow so don't sweat it too much :-)

gsxr1

Thanks. Im using a 1.6 crop sensor DSLR with a 35mm prime.

I think that's around 55mm on a full frame, which is near the 50mm Jupiter lens on the Zorki.

Where would one find a recomondation chart .

DaireQuinlan

gsxr1 wrote: »

Thanks. Im using a 1.6 crop sensor DSLR with a 35mm prime.

I think that's around 55mm on a full frame, which is near the 50mm Jupiter lens on the Zorki.

Yeah that'll do the job just fine. Focal length isn't really important.

Where would one find a recomondation chart .

You've lost me there. For what ?

gsxr1

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

Yeah that'll do the job just fine. Focal length isn't really important.



You've lost me there. For what ?

I have always counted on my cam to work out what exposure time I need to have.. I love the idea of this old camera , but how am I supposed to know how much light the film needs to expose a tasty pic and at a certain aperture .

There must be guidelines somewhere surly .

Say a bright day, at f2 with a subject 8 meters away. How to I work out shutter speed .


Edit... I also just discovered an Olympus Trip 35, and a Praktica BX35 SLR with a Sigma 35-70 f3.5 lens in a drawer .. Like the olden days here. LOL

dubtom

Check out sunny 16 rule on google, basically,on a sunny day @F16 your shutter speed should should be as close as possible to your iso,in your case 400 sec. It won't give you perfect exposure,but you'll get exposed images if you don't have a meter.Obviously you have to compensate for other apertures,@ F22/200 sec,F11/800sec etc. There's heaps of info on it online,it's good to know if your caught out. Your limited with shutter speeds with the zorki,1000/sec is it,shouldn't be a problem with our glorious weather.

DaireQuinlan

gsxr1 wrote: »

I have always counted on my cam to work out what exposure time I need to have.. I love the idea of this old camera , but how am I supposed to know how much light the film needs to expose a tasty pic and at a certain aperture .

There must be guidelines somewhere surly .

Say a bright day, at f2 with a subject 8 meters away. How to I work out shutter speed .

As I was saying above,

• use your DSLR as a light meter (stick it into aperture priority, set it to f2 and asa400, point it at the subject, see what the shutter speed is)
• Buy a light meter (there are a couple on adverts ATM, or ebay)
• Get good at estimating exposure. Best way to start doing that is to read up on the guidelines that dubtom mentions above, though I've always found it's more sunny 11 in these northern climes ...

Distance to subject doesn't really make any difference. All else being equal the 'correct' exposure for someone sitting in your lap is the same as the exposure for them standing 10 metres away.

gsxr1

I was waiting and hoping this 1st roll would work.
I was very worried about exposure.
But it all worked fine.
The barrels and kid was taken using a light meter as was the statue, but the dog was taken using the sunny 16 rule. The dog did over expose just a little. But the shot is still decent. Every one of the 36 pics was perfect or very near it. IMO.
I have taken a few potriats of family also and the little 50mm lens is outstanding considering it was made on a budget in 1975. Its my new fav camera . The Canon dslr has taken a back seat.

I would love a little advise on how to expose a picture with a flash. I have a flash that will work with the Zorki.

DaireQuinlan

gsxr1 wrote: »

I would love a little advise on how to expose a picture with a flash. I have a flash that will work with the Zorki.

Nice results.

Flash wise, in increasing order of complexity ...

• If your flash has an automatic mode the simplest thing to do is bung it into that, and match up the aperture you're shooting with with the settings on the flash. Depending on the flash this may or may not be an option.
  
• If your meter is a flash meter you can meter the flash exposure directly (this is probably the most accurate way of doing this) and set the corresponding aperture on the camera, or adjust flash power until you get a suitable value.
  
• Start reading up on guide numbers and how to use them to calculate exposure. Ideally you really don't want to do this :-)

In general though the zorki probably has some really low sync speed for flash 1/30 or 1/60 or something, and you probably have to make sure that it's set to x-sync and not bulb, there's probably a little switch somewhere. Also that shoe at the top doesn't look like a hotshoe so you're going to need a sync cable for your flash .