Zorki S question .

neilt3 · Sep 3, 2021

I've just received latest new camera , an all black 1958 Zorki S .

There's one piece of it that I'm not sure what it is for .
I've done a search , but I can't find a user manual for this model , and the other Zorki cameras I have don't have this part on them .
The shutter speed dial goes from bulb , 1/25 to 1/500th .
Below this dial is a rotating lever with a hole/window on it .
Marked on the camera body is 0,5,10,15,20 and 25 .
And it's the purpose of the lever I'm wondering about .
It's nothing to do with the frame counter as that the dial around the film winder knob .

I suspect it's just a reminder device to tell you how many frames worth of film you loaded into the cassette .
The lever being placed over the relevant number and left there .
Anyone know or have a better suggestion ?
See below .

Thanks .

removed account4 · Sep 3, 2021

neilt3 said:
I've just received latest new camera , an all black 1958 Zorki S .
View attachment 284251

There's one piece of it that I'm not sure what it is for .
I've done a search , but I can't find a user manual for this model , and the other Zorki cameras I have don't have this part on them .
The shutter speed dial goes from bulb , 1/25 to 1/500th .
Below this dial is a rotating lever with a hole/window on it .
Marked on the camera body is 0,5,10,15,20 and 25 .
And it's the purpose of the lever I'm wondering about .
It's nothing to do with the frame counter as that the dial around the film winder knob .

I suspect it's just a reminder device to tell you how many frames worth of film you loaded into the cassette .
The lever being placed over the relevant number and left there .
Anyone know or have a better suggestion ?
See below .
View attachment 284263

Thanks .

Hey neilt3

I had never heard of this before but it seems older Leicas had this same flash sync mechanism too ..

The flash sync is adjustable, with a lever mounted coaxially with the shutter speed dial adjusting the delay from 0 miliseconds to 25 miliseconds, depending on the type of flashbulb (or electronic flash) being used. This arrangement is common to several KMZ cameras and a few other cameras from the 1950's, including the penultimate screwmount Leica, the Leica IIIF, but would soon be superseded by fixed-delay flash sync. At any rate, it makes the camera perfectly able to synchronize with almost any flash. Sync speed is 1/25th.

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Zorki_S

(its mentioned in the "shutter" section)

Have fun !
John

neilt3 · Sep 3, 2021

jnantz said:
Hey neilt3

I had never heard of this before but it seems older Leicas had this same flash sync mechanism too ..

The flash sync is adjustable, with a lever mounted coaxially with the shutter speed dial adjusting the delay from 0 miliseconds to 25 miliseconds, depending on the type of flashbulb (or electronic flash) being used. This arrangement is common to several KMZ cameras and a few other cameras from the 1950's, including the penultimate screwmount Leica, the Leica IIIF, but would soon be superseded by fixed-delay flash sync. At any rate, it makes the camera perfectly able to synchronize with almost any flash. Sync speed is 1/25th.

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Zorki_S

(its mentioned in the "shutter" section)

Have fun !
John

Thanks john .
I read that page before posting the question , not sure how I missed that bit !
I wasn't aware of the need to adjust the delays on older cameras like this , other than on a few camera I have that have several settings / sockets that were made quite a bit later .
I'll leave it at the 25ms setting then as I'll be using it with electronic flash .

reddesert · Sep 3, 2021

Flash sync delay delays the shutter, not the flash, for use with flashbulbs that take several milliseconds to start burning. For example the "M" sync setting is usually about 20 msec on shutters that have an M and X lever, while X is no delay. I have no experience with this particular camera, but for use with electronic flash, you should probably set the delay to zero.

neilt3 · Sep 3, 2021

reddesert said:
Flash sync delay delays the shutter, not the flash, for use with flashbulbs that take several milliseconds to start burning. For example the "M" sync setting is usually about 20 msec on shutters that have an M and X lever, while X is no delay. I have no experience with this particular camera, but for use with electronic flash, you should probably set the delay to zero.

Good point , thanks .
I've re-set it to "0" .

removedacct2 · Sep 9, 2021

KMZ had this timer setting for bulb with the Zenit-S and the Zenit-3 too. After (3M, etc) it disappeared and there was only B and flash.

a Zenit-S (disassembled for maintenance, top put back on loosely just to show the markings) and a Zenit-3:

Zorki S question .

neilt3

removed account4

neilt3

reddesert

neilt3

removedacct2

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