Zorki 2c & Rainy Morning

<p>The rains have started coming in, though the official date forecast by the Met Office is May 31. They are always off. The light was good and humidity was hanging in the air. I went for a walk to capture the mood.<br />I used the Zorki 2c that I bought from Ukraine. It was dirty and was not working when it came in. It had all the parts in it. The shutter was firing at only one speed.<br>

After cleaning and lubricating I found that the stem in the center of the speed selector knob was loose. The knob had to be removed. It reveals a hole in the stem. One has to insert a hard nail or wire through the hole and turn the stem to tighten the thread. That done, all the speeds worked perfectly. The camera was restored to ‘almost new’ condition.<br>

<br />This is a bottom loader. I was a little nervous about that. It does not seem very difficult if you cut the film lead patiently and work it in. It is a neat small camera, very handy. I am beginning to like it. I used one of the junk Industars 50 f/3.5 with it today. Here are some samples.</p>

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<p>A disadvantage with the bottom loader is that one cannot check the focus from the back of the film plane. I use a back loading Zorki to test the lens and then use it on this one.</p><div></div>

<p>Contrary to popular perception I find the knobs and winding in the Zorkis very smooth once you lubricate the gears with appropriate grease. Most repair manuals tell us not to lubricate the gear teeth. [Romney, Tomosy, Upton.] That would be true for the German and Japanese cameras. But the Zorkis and Feds work well with a bit of grease on the gears.</p><div></div>

<p>I did not notice the girls, as I was focused on the bikes. Generally there was an absence of people this morning due to the rain. They seem to have added some surprise elegance to the picture!</p><div></div>

<p>This shop owner ahs been in trouble with the City Government over this. He removed the encroachment for awhile and then started all over. It happens on and off.</p><div></div>

<p>The bikes are getting heavier by the year. Recently Harley Davidson has entered the market here. And some Japanese heavy bikes are countering Harley.</p><div></div>

<p>When we built our home in 2000 there were only 3 banks in this neighborhood. Now, there are more than a dozen!</p><div></div>

<p>This guy started with a showroom for one cellphone company. He was that way until this year. Now, his showroom represents more than three!</p><div></div>

<p>During the 1980s, the mopeds caused the mobility revolution in the country. Now most of them have stopped production. They have gone into heavier bikes and scooters. The two wheelers are consuming more fuel now, polluting more and occupying more space.<br>

That is it this rainy morning. I hope the pictures are interesting to you. Thanks for viewing and your comments. Regards, Subbarayan.</p>

Always interesting, Subbarayan. Congratulations on a fine restoration job and great photos.

<p>As Mike said above, your photo journeys are always interesting. I did like the presence of your unpaid models in the first picture; they even smiled! I imagine that you are shooting with your usual ORWO and homebrew developer?</p>

<p>It looks a nice gentle rain, <strong>SP</strong>, not like the heavy stuff with the odd flurry of hail which is currently enveloping my town! The Industar 50 seems to have performed well, and you've achieved your usual wonders with the Zorki. They're certainly a solid piece of machinery. The pics are as fascinating as usual; in your last image you show a <em>girl</em> riding a bike, something I've not noticed in your previous posts. Times are changing, for sure... Thanks for another great walkabout.</p>

<p>Very nice/</p>

<p>We're under a tornado WARNING, so I'm shutting down. More later.</p>

<p>Wonderful pictures as always. The lowly moped was my first set of wheels. I was in college at the time, and the moped got me into Haliburton from Lochlin and back without depending on somebody for a ride. I used to work weekends for one of the teachers who happened to own a hobby farm. It was seventy acres of fences that needed weekly mending. Besides the moped, I learned to ride the horse bareback there. On my first attempt, I jumped up on one side and promptly fell off the other. I think the horse planned that. One of my first rides on that moped was from Lochlin down to Bobcaygeon to visit my grandmother. You should have seen the way she stared at me when I got off of that thing in the driveway. I think she tried hard to keep a straight face. You can always tell a happy cyclist by the bugs in his teeth. :-)</p>

<p>Thanks <strong>Mike, Starvy</strong>, encouraging as always. Yes it is ORWO UN54 and home brew. I may have a chance of trying out some Ultrafine 100 in the near future. ORWO has been my steady source. They are very polite, helpful and willing to supply directly from the factory. <strong>Rick</strong>, usually the pre-Monsoon rains are wild with hailstorms and heavy thunders. But this year the showers have been more regular and have kept the summer milder. Repairing the junk Zorkis I have accumulated nine of them. All of them are working well. Thanks <strong>JDM</strong>, do take care; I watched the damage in Missouri on TV news, thinking of you. Yes <strong>Rob</strong> they made some lovely mopeds here with even planetary gears so they slip into high and low automatically. I have tuned a few for friends in the 1980s. Good things do not seem to last! SP.</p>

<p>Pleasure as always, I love taking these little trips with you - thanks!!! Great job resurrecting the Zorki, too:)</p>

<p>SP - Another great post. Informative and with a glimpse into a world far removed from my own.</p>

<p>I recently went on a buying spree for Soviet technology and picked up a few zorki, zenits and and FED cameras. I'm a novice with these Leica-clones and have been having fun learning how to take take pictures with devices that do not have depth of field preview, instant return mirrors, full view VFs, "easy" loading film transport, etc. Truly remarkable what photographers had to go through to capture an image. Makes you slow right down...</p>

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<p>The build quality on these cameras is surprisingly good -- far better than anything I've seen on East German or Soviet cameras from the 60s and 70s. The Zorki 1 is a very compact device -- it will literally fit in the palm of your hand and easily disappear into a jacket pocket (esp. with the collapsible 50mm lens). It's cousin, the FED 2, thankfully does away with the bottom loading bother but grows in size. Still, both are very handsome and hefty. </p>

<p>SP - I was curious as to why you described the f.3.5 Industar lens as "junk" (the one attched to my FED 2). Your results are good, and so far, I've been fairly pleased with my test shots. </p><div></div>

<p>Thanks <strong>Rob</strong>, nice story on your experience with the horse. My first experience with the horse was similar. It went right below a low branch of a tree that would knock me off the saddle. I crouched low and escaped. My friend who owned the horse told me that was a normal prank unless we held the reigns tight! Thanks <strong>Pete, CQ </strong>meddling with the Feds and Zorkis is quite delightful. I do regard the Industars well. My junk reference was to the "junked" cameras and lenses sold cheap [i paid less than US$2 each!] by the Ukrainian dealers on Ebay. I bought them mainly to learn how to repair. In the present case I bought a dozen lenses described as "bad lenses" by the seller. Over a year I have managed to CLA and restore all of them except one that had a mangled thread. All these lenses are of a very good quality and are equal to their mother lens [the Jena Tessar] and at times even better. The FSU glass is of a very high quality. My very first camera was a Fed 2 that my brother brought from Krivoi Rog, Ukraine. I am looking forward to your pictures from the Fed and Zorki series. Regards, sp.</p>

<p>I am glad to be back, VERY glad. A tornado went through a little north of here, but no one or anything was hurt there.<br>

We are getting very tired of all this. So far we've had a year's worth of tornados in the last month. My power was out for about 3 hours, and pleased that it was no longer.</p>

<p>Anyhow, I am happy to see the tranquil streets of Bangalore. I'm not sure how it was done, but you seem to have captured the humidity even. :)</p>

<p>Nice Job SP despite the weather you got some nice contrasty images.. great soup you got there.. and you know how to cook it too!</p>