Zorki 3 - Totally hopeless?

[lonemantis]

Recently I received a Zorki 3 and Jupiter 8 combo from a relative who was no longer using it and didn't have much sentimental attachment to it. I accepted, of course, since who could turn down a free RF!

It's extremely clean cosmetically, almost mint, but the viewfinder was a bit hazy and the RF alignment was off. I managed to fix the alignment using an old service manual, and give the finder a good cleaning while I was at it. It looked almost like new afterwards!

I just put my first roll of film through it, and the results were disappointing at best. There are light leaks everywhere, which get progressively worse until everything is pure white by the end of the roll.

Here's a few examples of what happened. (ignore the frame cutoffs, it's a bad lab scan)

Anyway, what do you folks think? Is there a DIY way of fixing it, or will it need a proper CLA? The shutter seems good besides sticking a bit on bulb.

 

[oftheherd]

Are talking about the white line across the frame, I am not sure that is a light leak.

Others with more experience with that camera may have better advice though.

 

[wolves3012]

The white lines don't look like a light leak and what's the white squiggle and large patch on them?

You need to look more carefully at the negatives - is there any exposure beyond the frame, for instance? If the negs are B&W film it's less easy to trace leaks since colour negs can give you clues.

One thing that does stand out, the two shots above look grossly over-exposed. You say the shutter sticks a bit on 'B': if it sticks on 'B' then it's highly likely to stick on other speeds too and is a sure sign that a proper CLA is overdue. Based on the frames above, I'm not convinced this is the result of light leaks. Assuming there are no screws missing or obvious faults, the Zorki 3 doesn't have many places to leak light. The back should be a snug fit and lock securely, if so it probably won't leak. The other place to look is the baffles around the frame aperture inside the front of the shutter - are they present and not obviously out of shape? Are the curtains themselves light-proof?

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

First thing to do is looking at the shutter when firing it: what do you see when it is set at 1/30 sec?

 

[kievman]

I would look for pin holes in the shutter curtains first, take the back and lens off the camera hold the camera up to a bright light and look for any small pin holes in the shutters do it twice once with shutter advanced and once after the shutter has been fired -kievman