jukka_raunu

Thanks David for mentioning the this mirror problem also. My first experience with a Belarus-made Zenit-E of 1982 showed that it's not only the mirror screw that matters. (It does matter too, since I needed to take the adjusting screw out by several turns!) The small wheel that makes the mirror mechanism go up and down is made of plastic (!), and it leans on the mirror lever when the shutter is cocked. I wonder if it has ever worked as it should. This makes the mirror rise from the adjusting screw one or two mm in the cocked position, just enough to mess the focus completely, so you would have to guess if the distance in the Tessar is 1.5 or 10 meters... Luckily I had access to a wheel of a (bad) 1988 Zenit-12S that was made of metal. The only problem: the upper part of the wheel was too large. To keep the instant-return feature I had to cut some 2 mm of metal from the flat end (which lets the mirror lever fall back down). Then I put the mirror mechanism back, screwed it from the underside, and re-tensioned the return spring (2-3 turns clockwise). It was not necessary to open the whole camera to do this. The mirror wheels are visible when one unscrews the 2 black screws of the mirror compartment and removes the protective black cover. Then it's only the 3 screws under the bottom cover that hold it in place. But how to tell if the Zenit-E is made in Belarus or at KMZ? The Belarus ones have a kind of bird on the bottom plate, whereas the KMZ ones have the typical rectangular logo. Besides the KMZ have nicer chrome finish, and the film return (release) button is shiny metal and not black plastic. In order to resurrect a "birdie" Zenit, you need a KMZ Zenit for metal parts. At least the plastic wheel needs to be made a bit smaller I think. The KMZ ones seem to be better in this respect.