Zealous for My Zorki

As you may recall, my fellow Shutter Brother, Kelley, gave me a Zorki 1 camera for Christmas last December. In case you do not know, the Zorki 1 is a Russian made copy of a Leica I thread-mount rangefinder. I was quite pleased by this gift, as I had once owned a thread-mount Leica many years ago (it was stolen when my house was broken into in 1994), and as I had recently read a post by Hamish Gill on his 35mmc blog (highly recommended, by the way), I had been hoping to once again own one of these historical wonders.

I say, "once again own one of these historical wonders" quite loosely, because a Zorki 1, while it may closely resemble a Leica ii, reaches nowhere near the same level of quality the camera after which it was copied does. I knew this, of course, but since the costs of all Leica cameras has climbed considerably beyond my reach since 1994, a Russian copy would be the closest I could get to my old Leica iii. Besides, I like taking chances on "underdog" cameras. I figured that, with some perseverance and a little luck, I could make some memorable photographs with this little guy. In other words, I thought it would be fun.

However, the fun turned to disappointment when I looked at the scans of my negatives. Every frame had the same little round light leaks that were clearly the result of tiny "pinholes" in the rubberized cloth shutter curtain. 

Ugh! Light leaks caused by tiny "pinholes" in the shutter curtain.

Obviously, I could send the camera out for repair, but some internet research turned up a possible cure:  fabric paint. So I purchased a small bottle of black fabric paint and a small artist paintbrush, then I carefully applied several coats of the fabric paint to the shutter curtain. Once it had dried, I fired the shutter repeatedly, and it worked as it should. Now it was time to test the camera again to see if the home repair worked.

The opportunity to do that came during the first week of June at the beginning of summer break (I am an elementary music teacher). My wife, Debbie, and I took a trip with her family to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and the Zorki came with me along with several other cameras and a supply of film. I waited for a nice bright sunny f16 kind of day, and when it came I loaded the camera with a roll of Kodak Ultramax 400 color negative film, which had expired in 2012. Now you may ask:  "Why are you testing a camera with something less than a reliable film?" Well, first, I bought the film from a camera store last year, and it had been refrigerated then. It wasn't too expired, I reasoned. Second, I didn't want to waste a roll of fresh film if the shutter repair was not going to work. At any rate, I shot the roll while walking up and down the Myrtle Beach strip. When I got back home, I developed it myself using a Unicolor C-41 kit from the Film Photography Store, and then I scanned the negatives.

When I looked at the scans, I was both excited and disappointed. The good news was that the pinhole light leaks were gone. The fabric paint repair worked completely! 

So, now that the shutter curtain pinhole problems are behind me, I am going to be enjoying this camera a lot. Why? I love shooting it. It fits in my hand just right, and when the lens in collapsed, it fits in my pocket. Also, I love how the manual nature of this camera forces me to make exposure judgments and to think about composition more. Of course, any camera with a manual setting would do the same thing, but the historical charm of the Zorki (like the Leica thread-mount cameras it copied) cannot be denied. Yes, the Soviet-made Industar lens is not in the same league with a German-made Leitz glass, so I cannot expect the sharpness I would get from a Leica lens, but these photos aren't bad at all. The next roll I will shoot in the camera will be a fresh roll of film, perhaps a roll of Ultrafine Extreme 100 b&w. It's cheap but good, and I have lots of it. And someday I may consider getting a better lens for it. Obviously, I would love to have a Leitz-made Elmar 50mm f3.5 collapsable lens, but they are quite costly. There are plenty of 3rd party Leica thread-mount lenses out  there. If you have any advice on which are the best bargains, please let me know in the comments below or email me at unclejonesyscamers@gmail.com.