Quietest and fastest focusing FSU RF?

Coldkennels said:
I don't have a Z6 - Mine is a Zorki 5, which I understand to be fundamentally the same - and I know what you mean. My Zorki 5 is one of the noisest things I've ever used. I think only Zenits and Prakticas beat it; the metallic thunk of the shutter next to my ear sounds like a gunshot, and the wind lever has a horribly loud ratchet noise.

Other than that it's bloody lovely, though... :rolleyes:
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Both of those issues can be fixed on your Zorki 5. The shutter on mine isn't the quietest but it's not loud and the winder is light with a soft zzzzzp sound of the ratchets. If the winder on yours is rough, you can easily re-lube and re-adjust the gears. It's a common problem with the Zorki 5 and doing the job will transform winding. The loud shutter is probably just over-tensioned (and may be a sign that a CLA was avoided by upping the tension).
 
rclrcl65 said:
Tony,

I'm lucky, in that the winder is very smooth and quiet on mine. Will may have convinced me to give a Kiev a try. Ahhh, the sound of silence.

Rick
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Don't expect silence, a leaf shutter is about the only way to go for ultra-quiet. Kievs make a bit of a clonk on 1/125 and up and a kind of wheeze on lower speeds. Neither shouts "camera shutter sound", which makes them fairly subtle.
 
rxmd said:
It's very easy. You run your right index finger along the knob with some pressure, turning it in the process. I have here currently only a Zorki-3 and a Zenit-S SLR and it works with both.
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Oh my God! it´s true!!! :D

BTW, I own a few russian cameras, but two of them are in Spain and I don´t remember how they sound. What I can say is that Kiev 4am seems to me even quieter than my Zorki 3M.
 
The Z5 and Z6 should be more silent than the Z4 and Z4K since the first have shuttercurtains sewed over the metal laths (like the Leica). Indeed like Wolves3012 stated, in most cases the gunshot noise is due to overtensioning the shuttersprings!
 
Or there's also...

Or there's also...

Hi,

If you want a leaf shutter for quietness and interchangeable lenses and a coupled range-finder and 35mm film then there's always the top of the range Werra matic with its Carl Zeiss lenses etc. But they are a bit noisy when winding on.

Regards, David
 
wolves3012 said:
Both of those issues can be fixed on your Zorki 5. The shutter on mine isn't the quietest but it's not loud and the winder is light with a soft zzzzzp sound of the ratchets. If the winder on yours is rough, you can easily re-lube and re-adjust the gears. It's a common problem with the Zorki 5 and doing the job will transform winding. The loud shutter is probably just over-tensioned (and may be a sign that a CLA was avoided by upping the tension).
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It's probably long-due a full CLA anyway. The shutter's developing a hole where one of the metal baffles (is that what they're called? The metal things inside the shutter crate?) is chewing into the rolled-up shutter curtain on the right hand side, so that's going to need patching/replacing. Unfortunately, I've got no money for such things right now, so it's on the shelf. Sigh.
 
rxmd said:
It's very easy. You run your right index finger along the knob with some pressure, turning it in the process. I have here currently only a Zorki-3 and a Zenit-S SLR and it works with both.
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Interesting... I tried this on my FED 2 but it did not work :(
 
well i lost the 1965 auction, so i put up another bid (this time with my max set much higher) for an even older camera in similar condition.. so hopefully in 3ish weeks i'll have the new (old) kiev 4 in my hands, it will be nice to have another kiev! i wonder if the selenium meter will work on a camera from the 50's... the one on my 1984 kiev worked perfectly!
 
batterytypehah! said:
^It works on the FED-2. Mine certainly could use a CLA but the one finger trick works with moderate pressure.

Here's a video that shows the technique (on a Zorki-1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cNbLliEsko
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Thanks! ... but... I must clearly be missing something. I watched the video but all the winding I saw was using the thumb and index from the right hand..

paradoxbox said:
well i lost the 1965 auction, so i put up another bid (this time with my max set much higher) for an even older camera in similar condition.. so hopefully in 3ish weeks i'll have the new (old) kiev 4 in my hands, it will be nice to have another kiev! i wonder if the selenium meter will work on a camera from the 50's... the one on my 1984 kiev worked perfectly!
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Indeed it's difficult that the meter works, the one in my 1963 Kiev 4 is already agonizing. Good luck on the bidding!
 
My Kiev 4A is very quiet, I doubt anyone further away than 6 feet would hear it, I reckon the noise is dependant on how much tension there is on the second curtain, I think that is one way of reducing the noise is to slacken off the tension a bit. I find that the Helios 103 is far sharper than the Jupiter 8,
 
I just bought a kiev 4a and jupiter 8m from fedka.com and love it. It ran about 125 dollars total. It is almost as smooth as my contax ii. I just got back some slides that i shot with it, beautiful and sharp with that pre war zeiss bokeh, and the benefit of modern multicoating.
Quiet shutter and a beautiful copy of the contax ii and prewar zeiss sonnar f 2
I love it
Nik
 
old thread update, i won the camera i mentioned in my last post, it's a 1959 kiev 4 with the meter. i don't think the meter works but i haven't tested it out thoroughly yet, it's been a busy few months.

the physical condition is impeccable and all the knobs turn very smoothly (more smoothly than my 1984 kiev 4). the film advance/shutter winding while usually silky smooth, sometimes does stick a little bit, seemingly randomly but i know this is an issue for many people.

i'm planning to put a roll through it over the next week or so then develop and scan it myself. hope it goes well!
 
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