zorki models

<p>does anyone know about the Zorki Russian cameras? they look pretty cool. but i don't anything about them.<br>

thanks,<br>

t</p>

<p>Just put ZORKI into a Google search, and you will find MANY MANY articles on Zorki.<br>

Short story is that they began in about 1948 as an offshoot of FED camera company, making copies of early Leicas. They then went off on their own path "improving" the basic model.</p>

<p>Built by the people, for the people. Build quality is sometimes questionable. Jupiter 8 lens is amazing. It will need a CLA before using. All in all, a fun camera.</p>

<p>There have been many posts on the Zorki models in this forum itself. Just browse the back numbers in the Search "all of Photo.net" on top of this page; then, if you ask specific questions many would be happy to answer. Best, sp.</p>

<p>Many has made the pilgrimage to Zorkiland. They are capable performers but don't expect Leica quality. With a Jupiter lens they can take stunning pictures.</p>

<p>thanks. is there models or lenses to stay away from?</p>

<p>Industar 51 is probably the cheapest lens, but also the most reliable... Very well built. Jupiter 8 is indeed a great lens, the one I use often actually.</p>

<p>The Zorki (Зоркий) and FED (ФЕД)(from "Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky", founder of the "Cheka", the ancestor of the KGB) are both Leica copies. The FED was first done without licence before WWII, but after the Allied Control Commission awarded all the German patents to everybody as war reparations, Leica copies were made nearly everywhere, even in Germany, I think. Unlike the bench-constructed Leicas, the FED and Zorki are almost identically mechanically, but were mass produced in huge quantities under the conditions of socialist production.</p>

<p>Many of the Zorkis, which stayed closer to the Leica in appearance over time, have subsequently been reworked by skilled Ukrainian and other ex-Soviet craftsmen into the most wonderful fake Leicas with swastikas, in gold, and so on (<a href="http://www.cameraquest.com/fakerusk.htm">link</a>). No true Leica collector would be fooled by these nowadays but in the early post-Soviet days, a lot of people bought rare war-time Leicas as they thought for big sums. Lot of people nowadays collect phoney Leicas for themselves and (real) values have gone up a little. I personally have had better luck with the FEDs than with the Zorkis, but there are fine working examples of both that at their best will be equal the Leica originals.</p>

<p>The lenses are typically Soviet clones of the German originals, with the additional spice that many lenses that were originally available only in Contax mounts have been made in the former Soviet Union in Leica thread mounts (M39, often).</p>

<p>Another camera that was also made in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in the old USSR, was a version of the prewar Zeiss Contax rangefinder camera. In this case the actual factory was taken from Dresden to Kiev, along with many parts and the original German technicians. The earliest Kiev (КИЕВ) cameras, were actual Contax RFs with a different badge. As time went by, the Kiev factory continued to make the pre-war camera, but made many subtle improvements, so that aside from some quality of metal parts and so on sort of issues, some of the Kievs may actually work better than some pre-war originals. Of course, it doesn't hurt that they are 30 years younger either.<br>

Anyhow, the Kiev is another camera well worth looking for if you want that authentic pre-war German camera feel, maybe with a few more grinds and strange smells.</p>

<p>Ooops, I meant Industar 61 f2.8.</p>

<p>I like the Zorki 1(copy of the Leica 11) with collapsible Industar 22 4 element uncoated lens. I believe it is still the smallest camera with interchangeable 50mm lens.Here's how to load it:</p>

<p><a href="http://jay.fedka.com/index_files/Page345.htm">http://jay.fedka.com/index_files/Page345.htm</a></p>

<p>Every I-22 I have bought and resold (many dozen) have been coated. If yours is uncoated; somebody probably wore off the coating with bad cleaning/swiping.</p>

<p>Thanks Kelly, I now read the collapsible Industar 22 was probably never produced uncoated as the manufacturers KMZ continued the Carl Zeiss line.It benefits from a lens hood though:</p>

<p><a href="http://jay.fedka.com/index_files/Page323.htm">http://jay.fedka.com/index_files/Page323.htm</a></p>

<p>I do know something about Zorki. They are actually uncool, ugly unreliable products made by drunk machinists in a forest, they used tree stumps as a working bench and repelled wondering around bears by playing balalaykas and drinking vodka from samowars. So you better forget about that cameras. If by any chance you get a Zorki-2 just let me know.</p>

<p>Kozma really is famous Lennigrad salesman; thus the simple Zorki has to be downplayed.</p>

<p>Kozma is trying his darnedest to keep Зоркий prices as low as he can. We're on to his tricks here.<br>

That being said, the ФЕД workers may have appreciated the workers' paradise more than the Zorki ones.<br>

;-)</p>

<p>FEDs - were made by juvenile convicts in the GULAG system. Collecting that products of the forced labor is an inhuman justification of the atrocity of the Stalin's regime. Everyone should boycott the prewar FEDs especially made in 1932-1934 with Zn plated upper cover. Do not even think of that cameras.</p>

<p>Yes, and Leicas were made for and used by officials in the conditions of the Hitler time and used to further the ends of that state.The company participated in the use of slave labor (<a href="http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/germanco1.html">link</a>)<br>

Kodak cameras were undoubtedly used by American imperialists fighting republican forces in the Philippines, for that matter.<br>

Once you start down this path, where does it all end?</p>

<p>Not that it matters, I doubt that most of the FED children were actually <em>convict</em>ed, I understand that their reason for being there was that their parents were enemies of the people. The <a href="http://www.fedka.com/Useful_info/Commune_by_Fricke/commune_A.htm">commune</a> was 'protective' rather than ostensibly 'penal'.</p>

<p>Talking about any positive aspects of the Stalin period definitely has a large dose of the "Aside from that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?" aspect.</p>

<p>Tobiah's post has given me the chance to post a pic of my latest Zorki acquisition, a 1955 Zorki-1. Astute Zorkificianados will immediately note that its matt-black top cover, cream lettering, and F2 Jupiter lens with a '1958' origin all add up to this not being a Kosher Zorki. However, I love it! <br>

Comrades, I should also add that I do have a Genuine, Bedouine, KMZ Zorki-1 of similar 1955 origins, with chromed top cover and the usual collapsable Industar F3.5 just to show I can tow the Party line .....<br>

(Pete In Perth)</p><div></div>

<p>For the Doubting Thomases, here's a pic of my Genuine 1955 Zorki-1, complete with box, IB, case, etc, etc. What's the one on the right, you ask? Oh, that's a 1936-ish FED-1. (P in P)</p><div></div>