Alright, I'm seriously thinking that there is some external, divine force, intending to keep me away from picture taking.
On Sunday night I placed an order from Fedka for a Zorki 4K w/J8 and an Iskra. They both arrived yesterday. Upon initial review, everything looked good. When I woke up this morning I found the following problems:
Oil on the aperature blades of the J8.
After running a test roll through the 4K, I was unable to rewind the film. After unloading the film in a dark closet, I looked at it in the light. No matter what I do, I can't rewind the film (yes, I know how to rewind the film, I actually had to make a thread on this very subject a few weeks back).
Finally, the Iskra has a couple problems of its own.
So that whole order is going back. I am in no way knocking Fedka or blaming Yuri, because this is just the nature of the beast when dealing with 40+ year old Russian gear. I'm merely venting about my continued camera misfortune.