Zorki take up spool problem

[bulevardi]

Hi all,

Just got my Zorki S camera shipped today. (fake Leica of a Leica-copy)
At first glance, everything seems to work properly, except:

The take up spool seems to be blocked in the camera. Can't get it out.
(see attachements).

Someone knows if I first have to pull a lever or press a knob before I try to get the spool out?

As seen in the attachement, some Zorki camera's have a lever, where (A) is mentioned, to set it from 'a' to 'b'. In this Zorki, that lever isn't available.
But there seems to be another lever to turn (B), but I can't seem to understand for what it is used.

Can somebody help me with this please?
Thanks in advance!

 

[pschauss]

The take up spool should be just a friction fit on the take up spindle. I have one with a plastic ("after market" ) spool which is difficult to remove but it eventually comes loose if I wiggle it from side to side. A couple of times I have had to grip it with needle-nosed pliers.

The rewind release on your camera is the collar which surrounds the shutter release. I believe that you turn it counter clockwise to allow the film to rewind. This release, however, has nothing to do with removing the take up spool.

The lever which you circled by "B" controls the flash synchronization.

 

[wolves3012]

As pschauss says, the spool is a friction fit and will pull off, though they can certainly be tight.

The rewind is, indeed, the shutter button collar but it goes clockwise to rewind and anticlockwise to advance, not as stated above. When you put it back to advance, be careful that the shutter button doesn't lock down - twist it to make sure it's popped up properly, they often lock themselves. The lock is meant to hold the shutter open for long exposures on 'B'.

The flash-sync dial needs to be set to '0' for electronic flash but I see the "conversion" has obliterated the scale. If you need to use flash, connect it up, aim the flash into the lens mount (with the lens removed and no film in the camera) and trip the shutter whilst looking into the lens mount. Check that you see the shutter wide open - you should see the pressure plate through the whole frame. If that's not so, adjust the dial until it is and remember where it points. If you don't, you'll get partial frames with flash.

 

[xayraa33]

Just gently yank the spool out with a pair of needle nose pliers that have tape on the knurling of jaws. Grip the spool end by the inside and outside edge that is exposed away from the spindle.

The painters must have gotten that gooey black paint on the insides🙂

 

[bulevardi]

Ok thanks, I'll try to get it out later on today with some 'tools' 😎

Another thing is that the Focal Length lever is going to 20, and not to infinity.
The arrow points to 20m (before-last-stop), and can't turn it further.
On the other hand, the arrow starts some milimeters before the first stop (1m).
I'll have to test with the first film that it's right or not... because maybe when I'll put it on '20', it could be 'infinity' already?
Alas, the rangefinder doesn't show a correct view when setting '20' and looking to infinity. Grr.

 

[bulevardi]

Just to let you know that I got the spool out of the camera.
Only to load the film, I had some difficulties, it really took a while. I thought something was in the way. But hey, it's up and running.

The problem with the focal length lever is fixed aswel, in fact it's normal that I can set it to max 20m, for infinity I have to press the lever like a button and then push it further to infinity.

When the first roll is developed, I show some results.

 

[xayraa33]

Just to let you know that I got the spool out of the camera.
Only to load the film, I had some difficulties, it really took a while. I thought something was in the way. But hey, it's up and running.

The problem with the focal length lever is fixed aswel, in fact it's normal that I can set it to max 20m, for infinity I have to press the lever like a button and then push it further to infinity.

When the first roll is developed, I show some results.

Good to hear that you had success in taking the spool out.
Once you get the knack of film loading and using a Barnack style camera, it will become second nature to you.