First impressions:
Kit assembled - kit consists of:
1. Zorki 4K
2. Leitz Summar
3. A cheap 36A clip-on circular lens hood (that seems to do the job just fine, thankfully!
Camera -
The Zorki 4K sample I have is quite nice. The shutter speed number aren't faded as I feared. It's heavy with a nice feel and a bright rangefinder, though not as contrasty as I'm used to, it's still very usable. I do NOT like the way the camera functions after rewinding film. The shutter acted erratically after I rewound the first roll. I think I will forgo the last frame so I don't get that stuck-half-way shutter release. However, I shot the shutter a few times w/o film and it seemed to correct itself... weird.
But all together not a bad user.
The Lens
I think I love this lens - straight up. I think I got a very nice sample, virtually free of scratches and no haze that I can detect but it does have what appears to be a bubble or somthing(?) at the very very edge of the right side the lens that doesn't effect anything - whew!
I totally agree with this assessment of the lens by Alfred Bruell:
2/50 Summar:
It shows it's best results between f 3.2 and 6.3. In this range, it is comparably sharp, like my Kodak Retina Ia 3.5/50 mm Xenar from the 50ies. In this range, it is a "high contrast lens", but different than we use the phrase today. Here it means, that the lens shows clear colors but hardly shadow details. To give an example: When you look at a tree at dawn or sunset, you clearly see the colors of the bright parts, but the shadows are gone and almost black. That's what the lens does, even in bright daylight. Additionally, the unsharp areas are more unsharp than in a "usual" 50 mm, almost like from the 2/90 mm M Summicron. Both effects (suppression of shadow details and "increased" unsharpness) result in the most impressive 3D or pictoral effect I've ever seen from a 50 mm, incl Noctilux. The highlights are over-pronounced, which gives an additional impression of light in your pictures (like in impressionism). At f 2.0 the corners tend to be dark and the colors are almost gone. It is a warm to neutral lens.
http://members.aol.com/dcolucci/ll.htm
Even this is an old lens, and not the upper echelon of the Leicas... I kinda "get it" with the Leica mystique. This lens renders images like no other lens I own. I really blurs the OOF areas beautifully and seemingly at smaller apertures than other lenses I own. The highlights glow, and as stated it's hard to get shadow detail sometimes but no other lens I have has a 3D "pop" to match this one. My sample is reasonably sharp - sharper than I expected and certainly acceptable. Everything I shot was with a lens hood and there were no issues with flare at all.
This lens has a very unique and pleasing signature and is a different animal altogether from any other 50 I have used.
I just got my first roll back and am going on vaction tomorrow. I think I'll just bring my "Poor Man's Leica" set-up, along with my recently restored Iskra for MF. I will scan some pics and post them when I get back in a week.