Zorki4 focus problem

Swissy

Swissy

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Hello all, i've been toying with the idea of playing with film and i picked up a Zorki4 from an ad in Morrisons of all places, cost me all of £5 :D

I have a big problem with it though, the camera itself is in nice condition, but i can't get the focusing to work properly, i can never get the two images in the viewfinder to join up, they always overlap, i found a tutorial that shows you how to fix it here but it's completely beyond me, does anyone have experience of this, can anyone help please? or should i bin it and find something else?

Thanks for looking.
 
This might not help by I remember my Zorki 4 had a sort of dioptre correction system with a little lever near the rewind. I could not get the rangefinder to appear right until I had adjusted this lever. It might be worth a try. If it isn't that it sounds like the RF needs re aligning.

Good luck, it's worth perservering with as they are good.
 
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Yeah cheers mate, i have played around with that dioptre correction lever but it has no effect on the focusing problem i'm having, would like to get it sorted because although it's an old camera it's in super condition, and built like a battleship lol.
 
Is your overlap in the vertical or horizontal plane or both?
 
Zorkis were probably made in a tractor factory in the USSR, and aren't particularly sophisticated, so even in good nick the focussing system is pretty "hit and miss" - if it's had a hard life it could well be out of adjustment (hence the £5 price tag) - you could try equating the distance scale on the lens with what you're seeing. I remember a wily old professional who's attitude to shooting in the gloom with a flash and 35mm lens on a 35mm camera was "set it to 7 feet at f8, you'll probably hit most things":D

If you decide you need it adjusted you'll either have to bite the bullet, and pay a repairer to do it, or use the linked instructions - not THAT difficult!
 
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Take the lens off and push the tab at the top of the lens mount (in the body). This should cause the rangefinder image to move through the whole of its range.


Steve.
 
The problem is on the horizontal plane, the images don't line up and when i turn the lens focus, the images in the viewfinder only move slightly, i'll have a play with the settings as seen in the link.

Thanks for all the replies
 
Steve i tried that but even moving it with my finger i can never get it to move far enough to achieve focus at infinity.
 
After much fiddling i seem to have got this to work now, thanks to everyone and Richard for those links.
 
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