Zorki-4 and 21mm Skopar?

[Marko]

Hi Guys.

I have a question to the Voigtländer 21mm Skopar. Will these lens fit on my Zorki-4 with a working rangefinder? I often read, that not all screw mount lenses will fit on a Zorki-4. Any experiences with such a combination?

Thanks,

Marko

 

[Nickfed]

The Zorki-4 has a standard thread and, if the Skopar is Leica screw thread, it will fit. I don't think that lens is rangefinder-coupled, so it doesn't matter if the RF is working or not. Gandy's Camera Quest site should be helpful on this.

 

[oscroft]

Will these lens fit on my Zorki-4 with a working rangefinder?

Firstly, the CV 21 is rangefinder-coupled (it's the 15 and the screw-thread 25 that aren't).

Does it fit? I've just tried mine on my Zorki-4K (same mount as a zorki-4, see photo attached) and the answer is a cautious yes. Why cautious? Because I had to bend the rangefinder follower lever down a bit to make it fit - in its original position it fouled the screw thread on the lens and jammed in the cutout. But having done that, it fits and works the rangefinder ok. (Though now my 50mm J-8 is a little tricker to fit, because the rangefinder follower only engages with about half the thickness of the lens cam - but it does work fine when it's on). And further caution - if you bend the rangefinder lever in the camera, you may need to re-adjust the rangefinder alignment.

 

[darkkavenger]

A most unusual sight.

 

[payasam]

Wouldn't recommend Alan's solution.

 

[Marko]

Hmm, to say with one word.. It will only fit with problems! I will not readjust the rangefinder and so on. I will fit, and the lens must work! Without any experiments! The next question is, which wide angle lens will work without any problems on the Zorki-4? How about the 25mm Snap Shot Skopar? Okay, it´s not rangefinder coupled but also a very good wide angle lens. Blast it! I have shoot me in, for the 21mm lens. It´s a to nice wide angle!

 

[ZorkiKat]

You'll never really know until you try fitting the lens on the camera. Not all Zorki are built the same, even amongst the same models. Your camera may not have a low-hanging RF sensor arm at all and your 21 Skopar will fit without fuss.

However, if your camera is similar to what Alan has, his suggestion is the most accurate so far. The RF sensor arm may hang a bit lower and so it may have to be bent upwards a bit to clear space for the 21 Skopar. This is usually done to fit even Soviet lenses like the Jupiter-12. But as Alan has said, any bending in the RF may have to require some RF calibration for both near and infinity settings. This procedure isn't too complicated too. (If you want to see how Zorki RF are calibrated, see http://jay.fedka.com/index_files/Page422.htm)

Though I have no (yet) CV lenses, I've seen CV 28 and 25 -mm lenses go well on Zorki cameras. With the 21 or the 25, you have two things going for you. These wide angles don't require critical focusing and their extreme DOF can well compensate for any errors in focus settings.

Jay

 

[oscroft]

Wouldn't recommend Alan's solution

Hehe, no, probably not. I didn't mind trying it, because I knew that my Zorki-4K rangefinder was already out of alignment and needed adjusting.

The next question is, which wide angle lens will work without any problems on the Zorki-4? How about the 25mm Snap Shot Skopar?

As ZorkiKat says, you can't really answer that for sure unless you try the lens on your specific Zorki body.

But I've just tried my CV25 on the Zorki-4K and I think it has a much better chance of fitting than the 21. The problem with the 21 is that it has a small cutout in the screw thread (where the rangefinder follower is intended to sit) and that's where the Zorki rangefinder follower jams when you try to screw it in. But the 25, having no rangefinder coupling, does not have the cutout, and so the screw thread is free to push the follower back if necessary. (On mine, there is an interesting side-effect - when I focus the lens it looks as if the rangefinder is focusing, but that's just the movement of the lens body moving the rangefinder.)

 

[QUAsit]

Conserning Snap-Skopar 25: I have used it with Zorki-1 and Zorki-4 - no problem at all.