Gearing Up For The Crappy Commie Camera Party, Part III: The Zorki-6 Rangefinder Camera

Gearing Up For The Crappy Commie Camera Party, Part III: The Zorki-6 Rangefinder Camera

I'd never imagined needing another Soviet era camera for the Crappy Commie Camera Party (CCCP). After all, I have the Zenit 11 SLR and it's collection of lenses, the Chaika II Half-frame, umpteen Smenas to play with, and the supremely dodgy KMZ Horizont panoramic camera. Surely that's enough? But then a mutual on BlueSky posted about his Zorki-6, and, well, I'm sure that you can guess the rest.

Actually finding a Zorki-6 wasn't that difficult. There are certainly a lot available on the 'Bay. Eventually, I whittled my selection down to one reasonably priced model from Poland, and the deed was done. The item was described as follows, 'I'm offering for sale a set consisting of a ZORKI-6 camera and an INDUSTAR-50 50mm f3.5 Tessar type lens. This is a "swirl bokeh" lens and it can be used with a mirrorless camera using an adapter.' Well that was a plus point from the start. I have an LTM39/M43 adapter that I'd love to try with my mirrorless cameras. 

The description of the condition of the camera was promising, 'a nice looking camera with some traces of use [and] no major scratches or dents on the camera body.' It continued, 'The camera seems to be fully functional — shutter cocking and release work fine as do all the knobs and controls.' So that was good. The condition of the lens was good, with 'no visible scratches on the lenses. No fungus nor fog inside, maybe a few particles of dust ...  the aperture ring works properly, the focusing ring works a bit unevenly but no problems with focusing.' So, all in all a decent enough cameras and, for that matter, my first rangefinder.

The Zorki-6 is a Soviet-era 35mm rangefinder camera, made by KMZ between 1959 and 1966. According to the serial number of the camera (620045286), the year of manufacture can be found from the first two numbers, which dates this one to 1962. The early Zorki models were based on the design of the Leica cameras, but by the time of the Zorki-6 they were a more 'standalone' design. The Zorki-6 will allow changing the shutter speeds before or after cocking the shutter, which is good because this always catches me out with older Soviet-era cameras like the KMZ Horizont. The shutter speeds are 30, 60, 125, 250, 500 (+B). The frame counter must be reset manually when changing films, so I know that's going to catch me out.

The standard lens that came with the Zorki-6 was the Industar-50. This model was fitted with a silver M39-mount Industar 50mm f3.5 lens, serial number 5762482, which dates it at 1957. Focusing is achieved through a rangefinder, and as this is my first rangefinder camera I really expected to have problems. I needn't have worried, though. After setting the diopter adjustment under the rewind knob it was quite clear to see the 'ghost' image in the viewfinder,  and lining these up suggested the rangefinder was perfectly aligned.

Eager to test the camera, I loaded it with what I thought was an offcut of a roll of Harman Red film. After decanting some Harman Red into Rapid canisters, it seemed like a good idea to leave the rest in the 35mm cassette and use that to test out a new camera. However, instead of the 8—12 exposures I expected, I ended up getting around 22 exposures from the roll. Rewinding the film was a little awkward, you hold in the little button between the shutter button and the shutter speed selector, and turn the rewind knob.

For exposure I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 125, which is the box speed of Harman Red. In the event, the exposure was fine. Harman Red kept its high contrast tonality, and some of the images came out really well. What I did notice, though, were the marks over many of the frames. I wasn't sure what these were caused by, I did wonder if they were artefacts caused by the shutter curtains starting to fail.

All in all, though, I was delighted with how this roll camer out. I've posted the whole roll in an album (https://www.flickr.com/gp/147583812@N06/860gU881aZ) on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.

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