Zenobia 6x4.5 please help...

[FM2N]

Hello All,
Just came home with a pretty nice fleamarket find. A Zenobia 6x4.5. It seems in pretty good shape and the shutter sounds good. My question is, does anyone have a copy of the manual they are willing to share? Or help with answering a few questions:
1-The front element has numbers from 3.5ft-inf. and I figure that I turn this to what i feel the distance is between me and my subject?
2- On the top right of the camera there is a dial which I believe is a DOF dial. The outer ring has the same ft. measurements as the front element as well as the aperture numbers from f/3.5-f/22 and a triangle. I am assuming that after I guess the distance to subject I turn the outer ring until that distance lines up with the triangle and then choose my f/stop and see the distance that will be in focus?
Please HELP.

Thanks
Arthur

 

[benjiboy]

Have a look at this link Dead Link Removed

 

[glennfromwy]

The first you describe is the focus ring. If you are good at judging distances, you can get by pretty well just using this and a small aperture. I like to shoot these using the hyperfocal distance setting. Using the DOF dial, set infinty mark on the aperture you want to use. Let's say f/11 just for the sake of simplicity. With the infinity mark on f/11, your focus distance will fall at the triangle mark. Set your focus at this distance. On the opposite side of the scale, it will tell you what near distance will be inacceptable focus. The actual near distance should be about half the near distance shown on the scale. Set your shutter speed as appropriate for the aperture choice and have fun. Fast and easy. The only thing faster is to set the camera focus at 10 - 12 feet and use a shutter speed equal to the film speed, and f/11 for sunny scenes. Adjust as necessary for lower light. These are quite a good little camera, by the way. Enjoy it.

 

[Frank R]

The dial on the top of the camera does not set anything, it is just a handy chart to use when estimating depth of field for hyperfocal focusing. Modern cameras moved that chart onto the aperature ring. Read this to learn more:

http://www.dofmaster.com/hyperfocal.html

Estimating the distance, using a small aperature, and taking advantage of hyperfocal focusing will give you pretty good results every time.

 

[MenacingTourist]

How funny. I just found one of these at a thrift store for $10 and it works great. I've been having fun with it.

The only caution I can give so far is to make sure you close the window on the back quickly when advancing the film. I thought I was fast enough but still managed to fog about half the photos. I was using 400 speed film at the time. Right now I have some 100 speed to test.

Alan.

 

[bnkess]

I picked on of these up from a estate sale. Every thing works like new, except the bellows developed a couple of light leaks. Does any body know where I get this problem fixed? I would like to continue using this camera.
Brian

 

[raucousimages]

My father brought one back from Korea in 1953. I still use it. It actualy has good optics and is fun to use.