"red" dial significant?

rbiemer

rbiemer

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Silly question but:
I am lucky enough to own two Zorki 3m cameras. One has been to Oleg to be CLA'ed and the other one hasn't. I was looking at that one today and getting my self ready to pack it up and send it away--the camera that was CLA'ed was a basket case before and now is great. This one is a much better example and should be very good indeed when it gets back to me--and I noticed that the shutter speed dial is in two colors; black and red. Red for the speeds from 1/50 to 1/1000. I looked at lots and lots of different Z3s before I bought this one and don't remember seeing this before. The only other difference(well, aside from the serial numbers--the "red" dial is 557xxx and the "black" dial is 554xxx) is the earlier one has an arrow to indicate where to set/read the shutter speed on the top of the VF housing and the "red" one has a simple dot in the same place.
Any of you serious FSU gurus think this means anything beyond the usual evolutionary/incremental changes the cameras seem to go through?
Both Z3M cameras are 1955 vintage.
Thanks!
Rob
 
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Mine is a '56 model and has red slow speeds; 1-10 [edit:] and a dot. Yours must be a fake. 😉 Okay, serious. That is a little curious. They didn't make 3Ms for long (2yrs, 3yrs?) and their shutter speed dials aren't interchangable with any other models. The 3 is same size, but has separate slow speed dial and the 4/4K is totally different. I guess they just couldn't make their mind up how to paint 'em. "Red, no, black, no wait, yeah, black, ooorrrr BOTH!"
 
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Interesting. Mine has only black numbers. And there is a dot rather than an arrow on the VF housing. So I guess we have 3 variaties so far:

1. all black, arrow s/n 554xxx
2. all black, dot s/n 5552023
3. red/black, dot s/n 557xxx

Any other examples?
 
vanyagor said:
Interesting. Mine has only black numbers. And there is a dot rather than an arrow on the VF housing. So I guess we have 3 variaties so far:

1. all black, arrow s/n 554xxx
2. all black, dot s/n 5552023
3. red/black, dot s/n 557xxx
Click to expand...
Rob's has red high-speed numbers,
mine is red slow speeds. Mine is also s/n 5600xxx, though they quit making them in '55 [me thinks].
 
CVBLZ4 said:
Rob's has red high-speed numbers,
mine is red slow speeds. Mine is also s/n 5600xxx, though they quit making them in '55 [me thinks].
Click to expand...
My source (http://www.zenitcamera.com/archive/zorki/index.html#zorki-3m) says production ended in 1956.

So we have 4 variants now!

1. all black, arrow s/n 554xxx
2. all black, dot s/n 5552023
3. red slow speeds/black, dot s/n 557xxx
4. red high speeds s/n 5600xx
 
vanyagor said:
My source (http://www.zenitcamera.com/archive/zorki/index.html#zorki-3m) says production ended in 1956.

So we have 4 variants now!

1. all black, arrow s/n 554xxx
2. all black, dot s/n 5552023
3. red slow speeds/black, dot s/n 557xxx
4. red high speeds s/n 5600xx
Click to expand...
Almost. 😉
--
3. red high speeds/black slow speeds w/dot s/n 557xxx
4. black high speeds/red slow speeds w/dot s/n 560xxx
 
I've got the red-slow pattern and a dot on my 1955 model, 557xxxx. I had guessed that it was sort of done by analogy to the red 1/25th speed on the Leica dial (which tells you to refer to the slow-speed dial) but it doesn't really make much sense as such. They are the speeds at which extra caution would be in order if you're shooting handheld, though.

(Why do we all hide serial numbers? Is someone going to find the number on the 'net and try to claim it's stolen?)

-- Michael
 
xxx

xxx

Michael,

You know that I know that you know that I know that you know... they're just trying to be cool. It's a trend Tamarkin set back in the old days with those purple flyers.

Best... xxx,
George

amanda_lepore_893.jpg


Amanda knows too !
Shot with SN: 601xxx
 
xxx

xxx

I think I found the answer to my own question, but I could have sworn that camera looked different yesterday...
 

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OK, sorry about the abbreviated serial numbers but I used to collect guns and that was/is the convention for those.
If anyone really cares, mine are:
5540739(black dial, arrow)
and
5570412("red" dial and dot).
I almost thought the color difference was to indicate flash speeds but neither of mine are synched so that's not the reason. Perhaps if I had and could read the manual for these there would be an explanation.
But I'm not a gearhead🙄
Rob
 
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