Zorki 4K RF patch very light - anything I can do?

[ImpMan71]

Hi,
Can anyone suggest a way of improving the yellow rangefinder patch on my Zorki 4K?
It is virtually impossible to see 🙁
I read somewhere about drawing a dot on the window with a sharpie pen (I can't remember which camera this was for), but this hasn't helped at all.
Thanks for any advice,
Colin

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Cover one of the RF windows with some a colored clear plastic. You could cut it from a orange-base negative for example.

The black dot approach should work with a half-mirror RF, But the dot has to be big enough to cover most of the RF-patch in the finder or you will not see anything.

But the best thing is to have the beam-splitter replaced.

 

[ImpMan71]

Thanks for that Mr Flibble.
I have just cleaned the shapie pen off & held a piece of neg over the window, this does make the patch darker, but it is even harder to see the image - I hope this makes sense!
Whereabouts is the beam splitter on the 4K, is it sandwiched between the prism?
Thanks,
Colin

 

[NathanJD]

I think the light RF patch is a design quirk with the 4k. mine is the same. with the FSU RFs there is no bright-line window as there is in other RFs which makes for a very difficult to see RF patch. i think you could maybe try a slightly less heavily coloured material to place over the RF window?

 

[ImpMan71]

Thanks, I will try & find something.
They are a bit tricky to see through, aren't they!
I wonder if a Fed 2 is any better - not that my wife will let me get one. I have too many camera already (according to her 😉).

Cheers,
Colin

 

[NathanJD]

The FED-2 has the opposite issue! the patch is really deep orange but the RF is very small and squinty.

as far as having too many cameras is concerned i know where you're coming from! i now have 10 and I never intended for it to happen! the Yashica electro 35 has a lovely bright RF and although it's a fixed lens camera the 40/1.7 is just lovely and super sharp - only 'problem' is that it's not fully manual; it's aperture priority.

If you plan on getting a little more serious i can strongly recommend a Bessa R camera, i had an R2A with a beautiful bright and clear RF. they crop up quite regularly here in the classified section and if memory serves i sold mine for about £250 and it'll happily take those FSU lenses of yours with a LTM - M mount adapter and provide a solid base for LTM and M lenses should you ever be interested in in purchasing the "L" word (heaven forbid) - oh yeah and don't forget that the Bessa has built in metering and an auto function should you ever feel the need.

now just to send this post and my address to Voigtlander for the £10 comission 😀

 

[NathanJD]

Oh, i just noticed in your sig that you have a fair few Bessas!! DOH :bang:

 

[ImpMan71]

My collection is nearly 7 x that - so she has a point 😉
I inherited a lot & have added to it along the way.
I have a bessa R & R2, very nice to work with, but unfortunately wont take my Russar 20mm or Jupiter 12, they'll go on my Leicas, but I'd like to use them on an FSU - I have a 1940 Fed1, but it's pre standardised lens mount, so only takes the 50mm it came with.

 

[NathanJD]

The Zorki-4k is definitely the way to go in my opinion, yes it does have a sub-par RF patch but zone focusing can sort that little problem out. I recently took my 4k to a Bowlplex place on a work’s night out with very shabby lighting and missed the focus surprisingly few times, and I was working my way through a number of beers at the same time in my defence!

It really depends on what you want to shoot; I tend to concentrate on looking for vertical lines within the shoot and using them to aid in focusing. Failing that and zone focusing using the scale on the lens there's always the ever popular “take a wild stab in the dark” approach!

Wow! That is a lot of cameras! Out of my 10 there are 3 that aren’t really usable; i have:

Leica M2 (Baby #1)
Olympus OM-2n (Baby #2)
Zorki-4k (from the inception of my RF love affair)
FED-2 (As Zorki-4k – suffers very badly with light leaks)
Minolta Dynax 5 (Bought for my partner and she’s put all of 1 roll of film through it)
Yashica Electro 35 GSN (Given to me by a friend here on RFF)
Nikon D40 (First dSLR and managed to survive the cull that saw me selling my D200 to by the M2)
Olymus PEN E-P1 (Recently bought ‘for my partner’ because she wanted a smaller camera to shoot our first kid with whose due in September – i now have OM and M adapters for it 😀)
Cosina SLR (my first real camera bought for my by my grandfather when i was about 10 – not really functional)
Praktica Nova II (My grandfather’s old camera - Broken)

 

[ImpMan71]

You have a nice collection there!
My first slr was a Cosina CT 1A I think when I was about 12, one of the few I don't still own!
My intro to rangefinders came with my Konica C35 when I was 9, I still have it & it still works 🙂, hence my fetish for Konica's (FC1 being my 1st auto slr), S3, TC, T3, FC1 FP now.
I have a Leica standard, II, III, IIIF ( one of my favorite shooters) IIIG & Digilux 2.
Retina Ia IIa IIIc
A couple of OM 10's (great value cameras!) & Om2 SP
Praktika MTL3 & 5
A few more besides.
Just wish I had the time to go out & use them!

 

[NathanJD]

The Cosinas are interesting cameras aren’t they? I don’t really see anything online about them and I think they pretty much disappeared into obscurity. Mine still works properly although I haven’t put a battery in it for about 15 years and i don’t even know if they are still made! The viewfinder is a bit lacking on the model i have which is what always put me off

 

[ImpMan71]

It has been many years since I looked through a Cosina!
I liked the led's for the meters, 2 red for over & under - 1 green in the middle for correct, I thought it worked well, but then I was lured into auto everything (apart from focus of course) with my Konica FC1.
I have just done a google & Cosina's take S76 batteries - same as LR/SR 44's, so you wouldn't have a problem with them.
They must have got something right, what with their sales of Bessa's later on 😉

 

[pakeha]

My 9 year old son has a cosina, they seem to be quite easy to find here[ common]? , paid 5.00 dollars for it and evrything still works fine, well for a 9 year old anyway.
Interesting that my Zorki has a polarised style blue patch that is really easy to see.. all part of the FSU culture i quess.
regards
CW

 

[Ramon-uk]

If the moveable image of your rangefinder is difficult to see then there is no point in putting a coloured filter on it because that will only make it dimmer. Instead put a filter on the main vewfinder window, either a light yellow or light blue usually works well.

Look out for some old cokin type plastic square filters these can be cut down quite easily.

 

[ImpMan71]

Thank you, I will give that a go next week when I get a chance - in work now.

Cheers,
Colin

 

[wolves3012]

The splitter on the Zorki 4 and 4k is sandwiched between the prism-halves so if that's the problem, there's nothing you can do to improve it. On the other hand, that may not be the problem. Behind the RF window is a surface-silvered mirror and it's possible that it's deteriorated so not enough light is getting from the RF side. All you can do with that is to replace it. It can't be cleaned (DO NOT try) and re-silvering would be very uneconomic.

The Zorki 4/4k does have a fairly light RF patch anyway but it should not be difficult to see. As others have said, a FED 2 has the opposite approach, contrasty RF but dim finder as a result.

 

[ImpMan71]

Thanks wolves012, someone on the KY repair forum also mentioned this.
I'm gonna take the top back off & have a look tomorrow, I did a part cla to sort the slow speeds out & removed the arm with the mirror to clean the rf glass in front of it. The mirror looked very good to me. I notice the alignment is out both horizontally & vertically since I have done this, so am hoping with a bit of jiggling things may improve.
The vf is clear, so I can't see I have possibly damaged the patch as it is sandwiched between the prism - & it was ok before I meddled!!
I want to put some grease on the shutter speed dial mechanism when I go back in as it feels quite rough & graunchy when you turn it now.
The problem with the slow speeds was the sliding pawl under the slow speed mech had gunged up & wasn't springing back, it works now 😀
I'm just going to keep my fingers crossed I can sort the RF out now!
Cheers,
Colin

 

[ImpMan71]

I have taken the top off again.
I didn't appreciate how much movement there was for the rangefinder arm when I put it back in after cleaning & it turned out it was just way out of adjustment, having re aligned it, it's fine now 8^}
I have just re covered it & now need to go out & check it still works!
Thanks for everyone's advice,
Colin