zorki 6 film advance problem

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sdavies1

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I recently purchased a zorki 6. It seems to me that the film advance lever doesnt operate as smoothly as it is intended. I was wondering if they are just like this or if there is a way that i can correct the problem. If anybody has any advice it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Scott
 
do you mean when there is a film in or without? They can feel a little lumpy with a film in, if the curtain tension is high. If a clean and lube inside does not clear it up, I remember reading somewhere that if the screws which hold the plate with a gear mounted on it, beneath the winder, are slackened off, this can help smooth the operation. It's here that the winding gears all mesh, too much force one way as the plate is screwed down can cause roughness.

Welcome to the forum!
 
Zorki 6s are prone to getting stiff and lumpy if they were not used much in the 40 years since most of them were built. You always have to respect just how long 40 years is. Pretty much back to the height of the Cold War and the assassination of JFK, the first motorways, Len Deighton novels, E-Type Jaguars, Triumph Bonnevilles and Mods and Rockers fighting at Brighton. It's an awful long time ago. Who knows what can happen to an intricate device like a camera in all those years? I think these cameras must have been marvellously built to still be by and large producing wonderful pictures after so many years.

My own Zorki 6 was pretty rough when I took delivery. The slower speeds were sticky, the winder was rough and all the speeds seem slow. It has improved an awful lot just by winding and snapping and winding and snapping. All the slow speeds now work fine, although the faster speeds seem a bit slow.

It's a nice camera. Why would the faster speeds be slow? I understood that if the slow speeds were right then all the speeds must be right.
 
Malcolm_J said:
Who knows what can happen to an intricate device like a camera in all those years? I think these cameras must have been marvellously built to still be by and large producing wonderful pictures after so many years.
Click to expand...

They are not that intricate, which is probably their saving grace, and use or lack of same need have nothing to do with it. The winding in my Zorki-6 was never good from the day I got it, in about 1963, till the day I decided to do something about it, which was quite recently.

The problem was that a thin broad washer under an idler gear in the winding train was folded over and jamming the gear. In short, it had nothing to do with yak fat and everything to do with slack-arsed manufacture. I simply removed the washer.

They are easy to work on and there is an excellent illustrated article around on Z-6 maintenance but I'm afraid I have lost the link. It can't be hard to find and has been referred to on this forum recently.
 
Hi Malcolm J, sounds like your Zorki would benefit enormously from a clean and service. All that grease will have been in there for that long too, only that could have stopped being a lubricant when flares went out. You can imagine, say, a delayed shutter operation causing the curtains to move more slowly than they should. Just for an example, say their speed across the aperture was 125th sec longer than it should be. So that the fast speeds would look to be very slow but the slowest speed, say 30th could now take around an extra 125th to operate, probably undetectable. Only the fastest speeds might look slow, in fact they may all be slow by a similar amount.
Only a possibility, of course.
 
Here's a great link I used to CLA the lever.wind on my Zorki.5. Take your time, take notes and have fun; it's not soooo difficult. It made a large difference in mine. Still... they're Zorkis... and mine still isn't as smooth as say some Minolta, Canon or other newer Japanese RF. No matter, I'm a knob.wind junkie anyway. ;) Good luck!

edit: -- BTW, that site is available thanks to the hard work of RFF member je2a3! Thanks je!!
 
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This not the site I was alluding to. There is a better one. I think it is Czech. The wheel I was describing is under screw 5 in the top pic.
 
Interestingly, my Zorki 6 is the only FSU I have that needed nothing done when I got it (bar a tweak to the rangefinder vertical adjustment, which was me being picky). The whole camera is smooth in operation, including the wind-on. The winder has a heavier spring action than my 4K or 5 but is silky-smooth. Could be the camera had a recent CLA of course....
 
Thanks all for the help. Im going to do some reading and see if i cant clean the zorki up a bit. Thanks again. -scott
 
fidget said:
Hi Malcolm J, sounds like your Zorki would benefit enormously from a clean and service.
Click to expand...

I am sure you are right. This is something that I feel I should be able to do. I dislike using things that I do not intimately understand (this is why I do not especially like computers....). The problem is getting the tools to do the job. Where do you get jeweller's tools nowadays? The repetitive response I get in Edinburgh camera shops is "We used to stock them but now we don't" - and that is the ones who even understand what I am talking about. You go into a Jessops branch and ask about jeweller's tools and they'll think you're a nut.

Could you indicate what a basic essential tool kit would be?

Where would I obtain these tools?

Many thanks.
 
Malcolm_J said:
Could you indicate what a basic essential tool kit would be?

Where would I obtain these tools?
Click to expand...

A set of small screwdrivers, all slot-head, and a small pair of pliers, available from any electronics shop or any hardware store.

An old toothbrush.
 
Malcolm_J said:
Could you indicate what a basic essential tool kit would be?


Many thanks.
Click to expand...

I would just add a couple of points. Buy a good set of "jewelers/watchmakers" screwdrivers, commonly available in sets from almost any hardware outlet. Avoid the cheapest as these can be very soft and spoil the end of the blade very easily which then leads to damage of the screw heads, very ugly. Ask the dealer which is good (if it costs £1 it will be poor). In the UK, I'm sure that there are several brands which are better, the one which I remember are "CK" brand, or those from RS etc. Maplins etc will have these.
At some point (following the instructions from the links given) you will need to take off the ring which screws round the shutter button. It's a left hand thread (I ruined mine by turning only slightly, the wrong way). You will need some pliers for this, but use something to protect the chrome ring from the metal of the pliers. Most people seem to use thin leather as this gives good grip. It's better to have a pair of pliers with a circular shape in it's jaws for a better fit. (I use some crimping pliers, these have no teeth or serrated edge to damage the ring and they were the cheapest available) .
Good luck.
 
I have two Zorki-6s, one an export version. Neither exhibit any
roughness in the wind lever, but both have lens register problems.
One measures 28.9mm, the other 29mm with the flange secured
without shims.

john
 
jn053 said:
I have two Zorki-6s, one an export version. Neither exhibit any
roughness in the wind lever, but both have lens register problems.
One measures 28.9mm, the other 29mm with the flange secured
without shims.

john
Click to expand...

Hi John, welcome to the forum.
What sort of effects can you see in the images made with these cameras? I guess that this makes a difference at larger apertures? Can it be noticed at smaller apertures? (I do not look for problems like this in my FSU kit, I find this very difficult to measure reliably)

Dave
 
Hi Dave,

I haven't shot film with either camera yet, being focused
on CLA'ing the non-export. It was just a little bit of a
disappointment to get the camera back together and
working well, only to discover the flange was off a bit.
I use a Mitutoyo depth gage, so the readings are accurate.
I also checked the lens at infinity with a piece of ground
glass and it didn't quite get there. Wasn't off by much though.

I don't think it would matter at 5.6 and above. About
80% of the paint is missing off the film door, which is a good
indicator it didn't bother the previous owner.

Regards,
John
 
Hi John,

I also have a vernier depth gauge, which is capable of the required +/-0.02mm. I seem to have some difficulty in measuring whilst keeping it all square. I saw a thread or web article where the author had added a bar across the end stop of his gauge, so that he could keep it square for every measurement. The addition of this mod, of course, needs some engineering skills and was a little further than I wanted to go.
It sounds like you are able to get reliable measurements from yours. Have you had a go at shimming it up to spec yet?
 
I believe adding shims will add to John's difficulties, right? I'm curious as to how "too deep w/no shims" can be remedied. *scratches head* It's a discussion worthy of it's own thread, IMO. Might get some input from others.
 
CVBLZ4 said:
I believe adding shims will add to John's difficulties, right? I'm curious as to how "too deep w/no shims" can be remedied. *scratches head* It's a discussion worthy of it's own thread, IMO. Might get some input from others.
Click to expand...

Oops! Oh yeah!

More of a job than adding bits of paper then. How about stripping the paint (if any) off the face of the mount on the body?
Dave
 
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