Zorki in cold

MarkoKovacevic

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Local time
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Jul 30, 2008
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So I took my zorki out to shoot one -5C night. After 15 min, the lens was so hard to focus, and the shutter was giving me uneven exposures. Has this happened to your zorkis?
 
Sounds like the grease used to lube the camera is not up to specs. In another thread I commented about the importance of using a synthetic type of lubricant that will withstand colder temps.
 
Not too unusual for cameras to behave that way in the cold especially if they have not been CLA'd in recent memory. I had a Canon P give erratic exposures outside but was fine at room temperature. I had a CLA done and it is now fine outside in the cold. I also had a Summitar that had a stiff aperture ring that got almost impossible to turn outside in the cold. I relubed the Summitar and have had no further trouble. The other Summitar I have was never any trouble.

Bob
 
As far as I know, FSU cameras were not designed for use in extreme cold. The Fed-2 manual states to keep the camera under your coat in "hard frost" and to take it out only for shooting.
 
Well, I've used my Zorki 4 with Jupiter 9, 12 and 8 in down to -28 Celsius.

When I was skiing downhill i Sweden 3 years ago. -25 - -28 in the morning, -14 to -18 in the afternoon. Without my Zorki slung in a half "never-ready" over my head/shoulder, I would never had gotten any pictures of my middle son doing big slopes for the first time. The camera was outside my jacket, sometimes getting some snow on it. No problem.

He was adamant to go up to the highest hilltop regardless of temperature. Up there the -14 to -18 was even colder, thanks to 10-20 knots of wind. But clear sky and sun. Up there he was more quiet than ever, but skiing and wanting to go up again, and again, and again.

(Do I sound proud? :eek:)

Not many digitals around then :).

The biggest problem was the fragile film. Winding had to be done very carefully.
 
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