Zorki 4 controls

I've recently bought a Zorki 4 (not the 4K, the model with the knob film wind).

It's all fairly intuitive, once you've worked out that the rewind control is the

collar round the shutter release. However, there's a control whose function I

can't figure out. There's a ring around the shutter speed dial, which has the

numbers 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 engraved on it, spaced at what seems like

geometric intervals.

 

I've tried looking for manuals on the web, and though there's plenty of

information on using the camera, there's nothing on this particular control.

 

I'd be grateful for any pointers.

<a href="http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/marine/569/rusrngfdrs/zorki4.html">http://www.fortunecity.com/marina/marine/569/rusrngfdrs/zorki4.htmlM</a><P>Go down to the section on Using Flash. It used to select the the flash firing delay in milliseconds in order to synch with the shutter. I guess the settings beyond "0" were used with the old burning flash bulbs.

Hi Alex,

 

It is used to set the delay in flash synchronization.

 

Have fun,

 

Moises

Thank you chaps, that was excellent, and rapid.

 

I'd seen that page, but stopped reading when I got to the bit that says the ring round the shutter speed dial was for X and M synchronisation, since I was expecting the ring to have X/M engraved on it. If only I'd read further on. That seems pretty sophisticated for any camera, never mind an inexpensive old FSU camera. It looks like I should just set that ring to '0' and forget about it.

 

Thanks again.

That's right. But don't completely forget it, check and make sure it's still at 0 when you go to use the flash, as it can get bumped pretty easily.

"That seems pretty sophisticated for any camera."

 

This feature (variable sync time) is not too difficult to implement on focal plane shutters. Usually the curtains cross the film gate in 1/30 of a second = 33msec. The shaft of the first shutter curtain has a contact which rides against a contact on the sync time setting wheel. If the shaft contact hits the other one just when it starts turning sync time is 0 msec, if the wheel is turned it will hit it later at 5/10/up to 30msec. Of course this works only with rather slow moving older shutters. Modern f.p. shutters run at speeds of 1/125 or even faster, so the max sync time achieved this way would be 8msec - which is not sufficient for M sync as it requires approx. 16msec delay.

 

BTW Leica offered to integrate a sync contact to older Leicas as an upgrade. This upgrade was also done by independent companies (I own a Leica IIIA - according to german Leica nomenclature - with a non-Leitz sync contact).

 

It is not so easy with leaf shutters, you need an extra delay mechanim for the M sync and usually this does not have variable speed.