Zorki 4K vertical alignment and light CLA story

[underbyte]

Here is a link to a page that I just put together on the last 2 days with my first FSU rangefinder. There were some interesting moments and success in the end. I cleaned the rangefinder and shutter a bit, but best of all I found the vertical alignment screws for the rangefinder. Now I have to shoot some film with the hazed up Jupiter-8 and see how it goes. Anyone have a Jupiter-12 that they want to part with?

Scott

Re-live the comedy of taking apart a camera🙂
http://mountphoto.com/zorki_4k.html

 

[mjflory]

Scott, thanks very much for posting this. The page you've set up is excellent, and it served as a reminder to me not to leap into disassembling my sludgy Zorki 1D. I've done a few minor repairs at this point, with mixed success, but I think I have a tendency to remember the things that went right and forget the hours spent searching for the springs and set screws that wound up in the carpet!
-- Michael

 

[Kim Coxon]

Hi Scott,
The next one will be easier. 😉

BTW from your link, that J8 you have is not hazed up but has got a bad case of fungus. You could try cleaning it but I suspect that the glass will be etched with that type of fungus. If you need instructions for the J8, try my website here. http://www.pentax-manuals.com/repairs.htm

Kim

Now I have to shoot some film with the hazed up Jupiter-8 and see how it goes.
Scott

Re-live the comedy of taking apart a camera🙂
http://mountphoto.com/zorki_4k.html

 

[wolves3012]

Here is a link to a page that I just put together on the last 2 days with my first FSU rangefinder. There were some interesting moments and success in the end. I cleaned the rangefinder and shutter a bit, but best of all I found the vertical alignment screws for the rangefinder. Now I have to shoot some film with the hazed up Jupiter-8 and see how it goes. Anyone have a Jupiter-12 that they want to part with?

Scott

Re-live the comedy of taking apart a camera🙂
http://mountphoto.com/zorki_4k.html

Having just done a CLA on my Zorki 4K for the first time, I can symaphise with the lever return spring! Took me a while too...

The slow-speed mechanism I removed, cleaned in cleaning fluid and re-lubricated with watch oil. Works a treat now!

As for the rangefinder vertical adjustment - there's an easier way for adjustments: The window in front of the mirror is a prism, you just rotate it to adjust the vertical alignment. Usually it's stuck with glue so you have to chip it away then soak the surround with meths to soften the remaining glue.

 

[underbyte]

Thanks for your replies, at least now I know I'm in good company and I have fungus!
I shot a roll of Delta 100 today and it came out pretty well, no major surprises and at the end of the roll I looked through the viewfinder at an object in the distance and indeed infinity was off after adjusting the vertical screws. That gives me something to think about for tomorrow. It is interesting to see that you can still take pictures with a lens that has a ring of fungus on it. It makes it seem kind of funny when you try really hard to get that really small piece of dust off before you take a shot sometimes.

Cheers,
Scott

 

[mjflory]

That's a beautiful image! The lens seems to be performing well, too. From your pictures of the lens it seems the fungus is confined to the edges of the lens and it's not hazy throughout, so perhaps it's not so bad. I gather from the background that you didn't have it stopped down too far, either, so you're not just using the center of the lens.