Zorki-5 teardown

hks_kansei · 02-03-2014, 03:40 AM

So, a month ago give or take, I bought a Zorki 5 camera sight unseen.
All the ad said was that it didn't work, and the body had black tape over it.
But hey, the lens looked ok, and would be useful on my other (working) Zorki.

So I paid the $15 for it.

The seller explained that he bought it on the internet from the Ukraine, in the pic it looked like some fancy model......
In reality some Ukrainian has disassembled the camera and painted the top and bottom gold, and painted the leather brown.

Whoever did this was neither a painter, nor a camera repairer.... both jobs were terrible.

Anyway, the functional issues seemed to be that the shutter speed was locked on only one, and the rangefinder was blurry and badly calibrated.

The blurring was easily fixed by just using the focus lever (seller didn't know it was there)
The calibration I still need to look at.

I've just spent an evening getting to the shutter to find why it's stuck.

The flecks all around are bits of the awful gold paint.
it is EVERYWHERE, inside the rangefinder, inside the gears, inside the winder.

Anyway, condition wise, the shutter curtains have a couple of holes which I can't fix.
But the shutter speeds work now, a spring had come free from the mechanism.

Now to re-assemble and try to calibrate the rangefinder!

rrstuff · 02-03-2014, 03:43 AM

It's probably going to work better than ever before, once you are done :P. I would say reassembly is a good practice when buying old soviet cameras, kind of like changing a timing belt in a used car without service history. I bet lomography sells those for $200+ btw.

Pablom · 02-03-2014, 03:47 AM

what lens did you get?

hks_kansei · 02-03-2014, 03:55 AM

Nothing special, just an Industar-50 F3.5

Just something to use when I don't feel like the Jupiter-50 on the Zorki4

hks_kansei · 02-03-2014, 04:41 AM

All finished for the night, labeled, and packed away.

The main body will be sandblasted tomorrow (thanks to my lovely GF who is willing to stay back after work and sandblast things for me!) to give me a fresh base to work from (Pretty sure the Zorki uses a steel or tin top/bottom.... but if it's brass like pentax there's a chance I'll have a gold Zorki :P )

02-03-2014, 03:40 AM	#1
hks_kansei Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 834	Zorki-5 teardown So, a month ago give or take, I bought a Zorki 5 camera sight unseen. All the ad said was that it didn't work, and the body had black tape over it. But hey, the lens looked ok, and would be useful on my other (working) Zorki. So I paid the $15 for it. The seller explained that he bought it on the internet from the Ukraine, in the pic it looked like some fancy model...... In reality some Ukrainian has disassembled the camera and painted the top and bottom gold, and painted the leather brown. Whoever did this was neither a painter, nor a camera repairer.... both jobs were terrible. Anyway, the functional issues seemed to be that the shutter speed was locked on only one, and the rangefinder was blurry and badly calibrated. The blurring was easily fixed by just using the focus lever (seller didn't know it was there) The calibration I still need to look at. I've just spent an evening getting to the shutter to find why it's stuck. The flecks all around are bits of the awful gold paint. it is EVERYWHERE, inside the rangefinder, inside the gears, inside the winder. Anyway, condition wise, the shutter curtains have a couple of holes which I can't fix. But the shutter speeds work now, a spring had come free from the mechanism. Now to re-assemble and try to calibrate the rangefinder!

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02-03-2014, 03:43 AM	#2
rrstuff Veteran Member Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: Pasadena, CA Photos: Albums Posts: 1,126	It's probably going to work better than ever before, once you are done :P. I would say reassembly is a good practice when buying old soviet cameras, kind of like changing a timing belt in a used car without service history. I bet lomography sells those for $200+ btw.

02-03-2014, 03:47 AM	#3
Pablom Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Usa Posts: 1,940	what lens did you get?

02-03-2014, 03:55 AM	#4
hks_kansei Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 834 Original Poster	Nothing special, just an Industar-50 F3.5 Just something to use when I don't feel like the Jupiter-50 on the Zorki4

02-03-2014, 04:41 AM	#5
hks_kansei Veteran Member Join Date: Jun 2012 Posts: 834 Original Poster	All finished for the night, labeled, and packed away. The main body will be sandblasted tomorrow (thanks to my lovely GF who is willing to stay back after work and sandblast things for me!) to give me a fresh base to work from (Pretty sure the Zorki uses a steel or tin top/bottom.... but if it's brass like pentax there's a chance I'll have a gold Zorki :P )