Zorki 3 Slow Speeds Fix - Part 2 - success!

[@pefawa]

4:30 am..and I''m attempting to do the same as you.. However, the front body cover will not budge, so thats as far as I go.. Still your video is a calming influence and the ideal thing to listen too whilst I attempt my own cleaning. All speeds work but the timed slow speed, and I'll have to live with that.

[@ung2002]

Thank you very much for two parts of this videos

[@zenography7923]

Very glad you enjoyed them!

[@stephaneteot2351]

bravo , quiet a great job ! video très très intéressante . Merci Beaucoup ! , Stef from France.

[@zenography7923]

Merci beaucoup Stef, glad you liked it!

[@kevinnewsome5767]

Brilliant! Could you do the same to a FEE 3?

[@roygardiner2229]

Congratulations! I would like to ask a related question. I have a Pentax MG film camera and I wanted to take off the bottom plate to see if a bit of cleaning and lubrication would give a more reliable shutter cocking. There are three small screws holding on the plate. Two of them unscrewed easily but the third would not budge and I fear I have now damaged the "cross" in the screw head. Do you have a suggestion as to how I can remove the truculent screw? I am thinking of trying to score a line across the screw head and then using a flat screwdriver to try to budge it.

[@zenography7923]

Hi Roy. A tricky problem. Often, old Japanese camera screws are of a type called 'cross heads' and can be damaged by Philips drivers. To get the screw out, if there's enough of the head remaining, you might try a suitably sized cross head, or even a straight driver if it will fit. You'll need to apply sufficient pressure if the screw is tight so be very careful to keep your hands and body out of the way in case the driver should slip. Under pressure it could lead to a nasty accident if you're not very careful. As for cutting a slot, although I've sometimes done this successfully on cars, unless you have a very tiny grinder you may find the screw is just too small to do this. Good luck, and I hope it works out.

[@geoffreymendelson]

The official name of the screws are JIS screws. You can get JIS screwdrivers in a kit from eBay.

[@sccjono]

Sorry I'm late to this, but I have a very similar issue with an export model Zorki 4. Would I expect to see something similar under the cover in terms of mechanism?

[@zenography7923]

Like the late model Zorki 3, the slow speed mechanism on the Zorki 4 is under the top cover and doesn't tend to get as dirty as a base mounted mechanism. In my experience slow speed problems on the z4 models can often indicate the need for a general service and lubrication of the camera.

[@sccjono]

@@zenography7923 Ah thank you, that's good to know. You have inspired to me to take a camera apart for the first time and carefully give it a go.

[@sapienstudio]

Love your channel! Would be willing to pay you for advice on a Zorki 4 repair job! Hope you see this and thank you in advance!

[@wjpde]

What kind of lubrication are you using?

[@zenography7923]

A very light machine oil, similar to sewing machine oil, applied in single drops only!

[@alasdairdougall7868]

Yes, it is not the most exciting video, but I am looking to buy my daughter a decent rangefinder camera, as she managed to get into the National Art Collage in Sydney. I will buy one that has been CLA’d, but I want to know I can fix things if needed.

[@zenography7923]

I was pretty excited when the repair worked! Anyway, I'm glad it was of some use, and good luck to your daughter at art school!

[@KIFQHESE]

Gosh, me again, the grumpy guy. From collector perspective, by repairing you're putting a lot of wear on particular parts (at least to screws). Even if you do it perfectly and not leave any visible marks, any service is simply decreasing the value of a camera. From user perspective, there are better cameras out there to take photos with: working ones. I bet you have some of those. Flooding a camera with lighter fluid is a huge no-no. Spraying the fluid when firing shutter like a percussion is a no-no too. I just hope you haven't flooded anything important. There were no stubborn screws, so the camera must have been disassembled recently. Maybe someone was trying to solve the same issue that was bugging you. If the problem comes back, check Maizenberg, p. 162-163 and I think it's best to do it the right way or to pay someone to do it. If the camera is worth paying for the service.

[@zenography7923]

Hi Luke I don't think anything important was flooded - I was careful to keep the fluid only in the area of the slow speed mechanism, and all seems to be well so far. I agree that the more screws etc are tightened/undone there's the potential for wear; I do use good quality screwdrivers of the right size to minimize any damage. I guess this is an eternal dilemma with any old machines - I have always run old cars, some old and nice, some just old, and it's the same thing with them, any repair will wear nuts/studs/bolts etc, but I take the view that machines (unless extremely rare and valuable) were made to be used. Certainly in the case of old cars, if you use them they will rust away and wear out, whereas if you don't use them - they will rust away and wear out! So I'd rather use them, cameras too. At the risk of getting too deep there's a philosophical point here as well; as Buddhists often observe, all things must pass, and everything in this material universe that seems solid and permanent will eventually dissolve and disappear. That's as true for a star or a galaxy as it is for a snowflake, old cars, old cameras and indeed ourselves. Nothing, but nothing is permanent, except - perhaps - consciousness, but that's a whole 'nother story! Thanks for watching, and for continuing to tune in to these videos, your comments are always appreciated!

[@KIFQHESE]

Cameras can have a different purpose, like an investment, decoration, toy or tools for photography. I like to make photos, but I don't think there's anything wrong with investing or decorating. With things getting worn out, there are different kinds of wear, just as you wrote it. Corrosion in quality, mechanical cameras will take more time than a lifetime to really eat through something, we can safely forget about this factor. If a spring or a ribbon breaks, a camera will need a service regardless. The rest is wear and damage. A repair (blunt or not) that only keeps the camera operable for the sake of entertainment, rather than usage, goes under intentional damage even if it seems to be useful. We can talk photography or cameras (or philosophy), but, you've noticed it too, a tool is there to be used, and I'm always looking for inspiring imagery :) Cheers!

[@my_negative_world]

I have a lovely FED 2 that had the same problem and I decided to pay the 20 bucks that they wanted in the service place and they did a full CLA and literally resurrected the camera. I still have it and shoot with and I love it!

[@petemcknight803]

I have an old Zorki 3C and I appreciate this video series. I watched both parts. I was able to get all my shutter speeds to fire by watching this. Before many of the shutter speeds would end up with a hung curtain. I would have to finish the cycle by moving the curtain with my finger. Now it seems to fire at all shutter speeds. My next step today is to add a little sewing machine oil to the parts that were outlined in these videos. I get the point about collectors items and doing more damage possibly with repairs but the whole idea of me having cameras is for them to work. I bought an old Voigtlander Ultramatic from an estate sale. The camera has silver halide corrosion that is apparent when looking through the viewfinder. It’s pretty much unusable. And I’m not even sure if the shutter is firing right. The camera looks beautiful on the outside but isn’t worth much more than just sitting on a shelf. Fortunately the Color Skopar lens is beautiful and is perfect on my Sony A6000. There is nobody I can find that works on these particular cameras and I would be completely lost trying to take this one apart. The point of all this is I appreciate seeing you show how to restore a camera to working order. The Zorki I have cost 80 dollars and I bought it to use, not to sit on a shelf. Thanks for your informative home remedies!