Zorki-4 shutter dial Guidlines?

[mike goldberg]

OK, I just got my first ever engraved Zorki-4, CLA'd by Oleg. "Eta kracivi," it's beautiful. The winding is smooth, the shutter is very quiet, the V/F bright, and the R/F appears to be right on.

And, I know that with all [or most] FSU cameras, we wind and cock BEFORE changing shutter speeds. Still and all, I'm having a bit of trouble. The knurled knob that you raise and twist is small. And, the engraved speeds are so close together.

I'd appreciate guidelines and tips here, to make shooting more comfortable. As things stand now, in bright light, I'm tempted to set the shutter speed at 1/500 and leave it there :bang:

Thanks, Mike

 

[blw]

I don't know that I have too much helpful advice for you since I have painted numbers on my 4k and some of those numbers are rubbed out.

Luckily there are little dots adjacent to the dial (and therefore safe from being rubbed out) that mark my shutter speeds. Now I just have to know what numbers belong with which dots.

Also though, my 4k has specific "slots" that the dial drops into. Does yours not have this?

 

[mike goldberg]

Hi barry & all,
Yes, I have little slots that the small, spring-loaded dial drops into. Yet, the markings and slots are so close together, sometimes I skip over, unintentionally, like from 1/250 to 1/60.

I really like the Zorki-4, and also have a Fed-2c and Kiev 4a. The most comfortable cameras for changing speeds, are my M2 and Bessa R.
C'est la vie?
Cheers, mike

 

[santino]

well I guess that can't be changed. it's damn hard to set the correct shutter speed, you'll get used to it.

 

[alternatve]

I concur. The FED 3 I used to have had a shutter speed dial that poked my fingers, was stiff to turn at the slow speeds and hard to set at 1/125 - 1/60 because the numbers were so close. My Kiev was inbetween, easy to set till 1/1250 when you have to jiggle it a bit to get it to slot in the right place.

 

[wolves3012]

I have to agree, the Zorki 4 speeds are very crammed. They could have made the selector bigger to increase the spacing. I find this a general criticism of most FED/Zorkis with slow speeds. Annoyingly, I need my reading glasses to see the speeds properly. Cameras without slow speeds don't pose so much of a problem for me, thankfully. Interestingly, the FED 3B, 4 and 5 have increasingly better seperations, so maybe someone did notice the problem!