Comment and questions about my new Zorki 4

[eleskin]

I own Leica M cameras, but I must say I am impressed by the construction of the Zorki 4. The body casting is heavy duty, and the chrome finish is quite nice. The shutter is more industrial (rough), but I expected that. The rangefinder is ok (nowhere near the M Leica in brightness contrast and clarity buy hey, for $19 I cannot complain at all. Now here is the main problem; The 50mm finder is very hard to see through to see the full frame so composition is difficult. Here, some kind of external viewfinder seems essential, but since this is an inexpensive camera , it probably makes no sense to buy an expensive finder. So what shoe mount finder would be best for the least ammount of Money? This is a budget camera for me, so I want a budget shoe mount finder as well. (even one taken from plastic camera jury rigged would be ok.

 

[purplehaze]

Cheap accessories do not work well on cheap equipment (as well as on expensive). Just try to find an old soviet external viewfinder and it will work perfectly with your Zorki 4. If you get an expensive Leica or Zeiss viewfinder the result will be the same on this type of camera.

 

[Borghesia]

A turret KMZ viewfinder is reasonably cheap, about $40,- .
It looks great and artsy and you can use it with 35/50/85/135mm lenses.
It will be more expensive as your camera, but it will be hard to find a sole 50mm VF cheaply.

 

[summar]

I found a cheap 50mm Albada finder in a junk drawer at an old camera store. It shows a clear, sharply outlined lifesize field of view surrounded by blur -- easy to use with both eyes open.

 

[rbiemer]

I like the KMZ finder but don't always want to carry it. Especially if I'm only shooting with one lens.
On my FED 5, I had a similar problem and what I ended up doing was to take a fine point marker and out line the front VF window. Just inside the metal edges. Crude, to be sure, but no permanent harm to the camera, no dis-assembly, and easily re newable if needed.
Rob

 

[pschauss]

I find that if I wear my glasses the field of view in the viewfinder corresponds closely to that of a Jupiter 9. If I want to shoot with a 50 mm lens, I take off my glasses.

 

[payasam]

I used a Leica IIIc with a VIOOH permanently mounted and a Zorki 1C with a turret finder (Liechtenstein) permanently mounted. My FED-2 has a KMZ turret finder on it at all times.

 

[konicaman]

I would second the KMZ turret, works fine if you get one in good condition - and it gives the camera this extra retro look (personally I really like that - but OK I am a geek....)

Happy shooting

 

[wolves3012]

Another vote for the turret-finder here. It's also useful with lenses other than 50mm and it has some (limited) parallax correction. One of the nice things is that the frame is surrounded by a larger area that allows you to see what's just outside the frame, so you can see what might be nice to include!