J-dogg's thread of random Soviet FSU repairs

j-dogg · Jun 28, 2022

Because things made by Communism need a little Capitalism and a side order of Collectivism to work properly.

I've been off a couple weeks and have tended to my flock of Soviet rangefinders that have been serviced by Fedka or me, or waiting to be serviced. Let's get started with a big bang, an ultra-rare Leningrad from 1958.

If you remember this came in recently and was actually serviced during the conflict with Russia. Yuri Boguslavsky and Oleg V. and Oleg K. are the best if you got an FSU Rangefinder and want it fixed right, wait for all this crap to blow over and send it to one of them.

It needed something stupid just an infinity adjustment but I had to take the top off to do it because the mechanism isn't perfectly lined up with the hole. If you have one of these (God help you) and are wondering how to get the top off, it's criminally easy. Pull the screws on the top, pull the two screws on the shutter speed adjuster (set it to 250 or something memorable before you do) shoot it until the spring loses tension then carefully pull up on the top.

j-dogg · Jun 28, 2022

This one is in progress. This is a 1961 Drug that has a few issues and I've solved one. The Leicavit-style advance mechanism was loose and needed CLA, the whole camera does but this is just part of it. I ended up taking a link out of the chain and greasing the gears inside with a very small amount of turbine oil, not even a drop just the tiniest amount that I can fit on the end of a paper clip, that's all it needs.

Tomorrow I'm going to pop the top off, adjust the RF, try to figure out why the curtains are apart on the advance stroke and solve why the film release mechanism for rewinding is stuck. This may end up in Russia.

j-dogg · Jun 29, 2022

So, the Drug. The film rewind was easy, the lever was installed backward and not in the square key, I removed it and installed it correctly, it's good now.

The RF/VF has been gone through and adjusted to the 50/2 that it came with, perfect.

The shutter curtains, one is bent at the end preventing the other from going under it, if I push one down they move over each other, so it may need replacement, and I don't have any shutters so that one may go off to Russia. But for now I can shoot and rewind it with the cap on

gone · Jun 29, 2022

If that's a J8 lens on the Drug, it's a nice piece of glass. Mine had nice bokeh when shot wide open.

flavio81 · Jun 30, 2022

j-dogg said:
Because things made by Communism need a little Capitalism and a side order of Collectivism to work properly.

I've been off a couple weeks and have tended to my flock of Soviet rangefinders that have been serviced by Fedka or me, or waiting to be serviced. Let's get started with a big bang, an ultra-rare Leningrad from 1958.

If you remember this came in recently and was actually serviced during the conflict with Russia. Yuri Boguslavsky and Oleg V. and Oleg K. are the best if you got an FSU Rangefinder and want it fixed right, wait for all this crap to blow over and send it to one of them.

It needed something stupid just an infinity adjustment but I had to take the top off to do it because the mechanism isn't perfectly lined up with the hole. If you have one of these (God help you) and are wondering how to get the top off, it's criminally easy. Pull the screws on the top, pull the two screws on the shutter speed adjuster (set it to 250 or something memorable before you do) shoot it until the spring loses tension then carefully pull up on the top.

Hi GOMZ-logo,

Would you recommend the Leningrad over something like a Fed-2?

BTW, if you service soviet cameras and have any docuemntation in english for the Kiev 88 other than the TENTO manuals, i'll be glad to have it!

cramej · Jun 30, 2022

@j-dogg I'm getting ready to open up my newly acquired Zorki 6 to work on the shutter and rough wind lever. Are you aware of any good documentation? I've watched some Youtube videos but the producer conveniently left out the parts where he actually performs the work. I've read that the shutter was common across the 4, 5 and 6 with the exception of the slow speeds.

j-dogg · Jul 1, 2022

flavio81 said:
Hi GOMZ-logo,

Would you recommend the Leningrad over something like a Fed-2?

BTW, if you service soviet cameras and have any docuemntation in english for the Kiev 88 other than the TENTO manuals, i'll be glad to have it!

Depends on what lenses you want to use. I have found the Jupiter lenses don't always play well on the FED and there are variations in the rangefinder accuracy, but if you slap an Industar on one (or calibrate it to one specific Jupiter lens of your choosing) they are fine. My two FEDs are calibrated differently, one to an Industar 26 and the other to my Jupiter 3 50/1.5. The viewfinder leaves a bit to be desired but once it's cleaned they are nice and contrasty.

The Leningrad, though awesome to use, can be problematic finding one that works. If you can get your hands on one you know has been gone through, it is a dream to shoot and plays well with all of the m39 LTM lenses designed for it. It does not play well with CV glass because of the overhang on the front some will not screw on, apparently my 15mm doesn't work on it. The viewfinder on the Leningrad is HUGE, has to be 100%. I actually have to look around in the frame to see stuff on the edges. It's very bright too. The only downside to Leningrad, you're going to have to ship it to either Fedka or Oleg Khalavin to get it serviced right and with the conflict over there I would wait.

Fedka maintains a store here in the States he does not have a Leningrad, I actually had to special order this one, but he should have a few FED-2's in stock, buy one from him. Soviet cameras are like classic Jaguars, either pay up front for a sorted one or pay later to get it sorted.

j-dogg · Jul 1, 2022

cramej said:
@j-dogg I'm getting ready to open up my newly acquired Zorki 6 to work on the shutter and rough wind lever. Are you aware of any good documentation? I've watched some Youtube videos but the producer conveniently left out the parts where he actually performs the work. I've read that the shutter was common across the 4, 5 and 6 with the exception of the slow speeds.

Honestly ask on some of the Soviet Camera FB pages. I have a Zorki 4 manual in pdf if it helps at all. It helped me with my Mir repair recently, more on that later. The shutter should be the same, the 5 and 6 were evolutions of the 4 and that was an evolution of the 3. I have a 5 with probably the same issue yours has and I burned a hole in the curtain leaving my f1.5 open and in the sun apparently, whoops. If you can find a 5, they are very rare, made one year only in 1958.

I do have a repair guide that talks about the 5 and 6 but it's entirely in Russian and I don't speak that much Russian yet, I'll have a look. Are you just trying a shutter replacement?

j-dogg · Jul 1, 2022

momus said:
If that's a J8 lens on the Drug, it's a nice piece of glass. Mine had nice bokeh when shot wide open.

It is, very underrated LTM lens. People overlook it in favor of the 1.5 or the collapsible Elmar clone. Leicaphiles love them though its a good entry lens for a Barnack camera. Mine has a J8 in the bag.

j-dogg · Jul 1, 2022

Today, a rare Mir on the bench. This one is basically a Zorki 4 without the slow speeds. They were sold only in the Soviet market and were never exported. A good shooter with a huge bright VF and unlike a lot of Zorki 4's, strap lugs. They are otherwise identical to a Zorki 4.

This one had an issue with the shutter speed wheel, one of the rods came loose (with the arrow pointing to it) and was out of alignment, jamming the shutter. A simple pull on the assembly (circled) and re-seating the rod solved the problem, and while it was out I cleaned the VF as this up until now was a virgin camera.

It's back together now and loaded with Tri-X 400

j-dogg · Jul 1, 2022

Got a good shot of my KMZ kit together.

The NKVD FED in the foreground is not KMZ but is quite rare as it is a wartime model made just before the Nazi Blitzkrieg got to Kharkiv. It has had a full CLA and is a daily shooter, they were only given to NKVD officers and commisars.

McDiesel · Jul 1, 2022

@j-dogg you seem to like Soviet cameras! Would you buy this one from Fedka? I wonder if it's been serviced, because I can't imagine shooting a camera with original lubricants.

flavio81 · Jul 1, 2022

j-dogg said:
Depends on what lenses you want to use. I have found the Jupiter lenses don't always play well on the FED and there are variations in the rangefinder accuracy, but if you slap an Industar on one (or calibrate it to one specific Jupiter lens of your choosing) they are fine. My two FEDs are calibrated differently, one to an Industar 26 and the other to my Jupiter 3 50/1.5. The viewfinder leaves a bit to be desired but once it's cleaned they are nice and contrasty.

Maybe you already know this, but there are two typical problems with soviet lenses.

a. - One is that the infinity stop position isn't correctly calibrated. I've recently bought a J8 1961, a Helios-103 from the 80s and a J-12 from the mid 60s. (all Contax mount). The first two had a wrong infinity stop adjustment. My camera is correctly calibrated btw; a Zeiss Sonnar 50/2 i bought from elsewhere focused perfectly at infinity, as did other Zeiss lens. As did the J12 mentioned.

b. - The other is that the focal length is not necessarily precise. This, for example is a known problem on the J8 and the J3, and it's not easy to correct (it's an optical correction that demands time, patience and milling a bit). There's a PDF out there that shows how.

Now, the cameras with a "keel"-shaped rangefinder coupler, like the Zorki-4 and many others, allow you to adjust not just the infinity position at the rangefinder but also the precision at close focusing. This means that you can compensate for any lens even if it has problem (b). But then your camera will be correctly calibrated to only ONE lens.

To achieve complete interchangeability, problems (a) and (b) should be corrected and the camera should be calibrated to a known good lens. Not easy, but doable.

So, I contend it's not a problem of rangefinder accuracy; it's a problem of the lens focusing not tracking correctly what the rangefinder sees.

j-dogg · Jul 1, 2022

McDiesel said:
@j-dogg you seem to like Soviet cameras! Would you buy this one from Fedka? I wonder if it's been serviced, because I can't imagine shooting a camera with original lubricants.

To my knowledge everything Yuri sells has been serviced. I can tell you almost every piece of equipment I have got through Fedka I didn't have to put a screwdriver on, the only exception was that Leningrad and given the circumstances, no big deal.

3M is one of my favorites and it has the nice VF used on the Zorki 4. Shoot him an email and ask him about it, that's how I fell into a Leningrad. He had one on his site but he didn't actually have one on his person and he found me a mint copy.

j-dogg · Jul 1, 2022

flavio81 said:
Maybe you already know this, but there are two typical problems with soviet lenses.

a. - One is that the infinity stop position isn't correctly calibrated. I've recently bought a J8 1961, a Helios-103 from the 80s and a J-12 from the mid 60s. (all Contax mount). The first two had a wrong infinity stop adjustment. My camera is correctly calibrated btw; a Zeiss Sonnar 50/2 i bought from elsewhere focused perfectly at infinity, as did other Zeiss lens. As did the J12 mentioned.

b. - The other is that the focal length is not necessarily precise. This, for example is a known problem on the J8 and the J3, and it's not easy to correct (it's an optical correction that demands time, patience and milling a bit). There's a PDF out there that shows how.

Now, the cameras with a "keel"-shaped rangefinder coupler, like the Zorki-4 and many others, allow you to adjust not just the infinity position at the rangefinder but also the precision at close focusing. This means that you can compensate for any lens even if it has problem (b). But then your camera will be correctly calibrated to only ONE lens.

To achieve complete interchangeability, problems (a) and (b) should be corrected and the camera should be calibrated to a known good lens. Not easy, but doable.

So, I contend it's not a problem of rangefinder accuracy; it's a problem of the lens focusing not tracking correctly what the rangefinder sees.

Yup, that's part of the reason I have so many of them, each one is calibrated to one lens. Some stuff like the Drug and Leningrad register the same in all lenses but then there's stuff like my FEDs and Zorkis that show differently in the finder.

flavio81 · Jul 1, 2022

j-dogg said:
Yup, that's part of the reason I have so many of them, each one is calibrated to one lens. Some stuff like the Drug and Leningrad register the same in all lenses but then there's stuff like my FEDs and Zorkis that show differently in the finder.

This would mean your lenses are OK

And thus you could recalibrate the Zorkis to read OK, you just need to know the procedure -- which involves shifting the position of the "keel". It isn't hard.

McDiesel · Jul 1, 2022

j-dogg said:
To my knowledge everything Yuri sells has been serviced. I can tell you almost every piece of equipment I have got through Fedka I didn't have to put a screwdriver on, the only exception was that Leningrad and given the circumstances, no big deal.

3M is one of my favorites and it has the nice VF used on the Zorki 4. Shoot him an email and ask him about it, that's how I fell into a Leningrad. He had one on his site but he didn't actually have one on his person and he found me a mint copy.

Thank you.

j-dogg · Jul 1, 2022

flavio81 said:
This would mean your lenses are OK

And thus you could recalibrate the Zorkis to read OK, you just need to know the procedure -- which involves shifting the position of the "keel". It isn't hard.

yup ive done it on the Mir which uses the same thing and everything registers spot on, set to 1m cal the keep, set to infinity and cal the screw.

__Brian · Jul 1, 2022

50mm Jupiter 3 f/1.5 Information — Jason Howe

jasonhowe.blog

Instructions for the J-3 are hosted above, as they are on some other websites. The focal length tolerance for the J-3 is +/- 1%, which explains why some work so well with a Leica and others do not. On a Russian camera, setting the Shim of the lens to agree with the Camera should be sufficient. On a Digital camera, such as the M Monochrom- fine adjustments of 0.01mm may be required for optimizing focus for deep yellow and orange filters. Which is how I can rationalize having a lot of Jupiters. Not really.... but I have a couple optimized like that.

And with that stated- I optimized one of my Zorki 3M bodies for use with a Nikkor 5cm F2. The RF cam of some lenses such as the Summarit will pass under the cam follower of the Russian cameras. The Nikkor is fine for use, has a thick cam.

My friend in Australia bought a J-3 from Fedka and ended up sending it to me for adjustment.

Leica - Tales from the Greasy Side: Miscellaneous Notes on the Jupiter-3

For Jupiter-3: ever notice a slight play in the focus, where it moves some small fraction of a millimeter before the dampening kicks in? OR -worse- it jams up after a CLA? I learned to keep the guide screws in order, put them back in the same slot that they came out of. 90% of the time, will...

cameraderie.org

It only had one guide screw holding the helical together. Turned out the slot for the second one was not cut straight, and jammed with a guide screw in it. Required some fine filing to set straight.

flavio81 · Jul 1, 2022

j-dogg said:
yup ive done it on the Mir which uses the same thing and everything registers spot on, set to 1m cal the keep, set to infinity and cal the screw.

Wonderful

J-dogg's thread of random Soviet FSU repairs

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