Description
The Zorki was the second Leica II(D) copy produced by the mighty Soviet photo industry. The Krasnogorsk plant joined FED in the “Leica” business in the late 40’s. The very first Zorkis made by KMZ had a FED engraving next to Zorki (named FED-Zorki, quite rare now). From the early 50’s Krasnogorsk was on its own, and many successful LTM rangefinders were made until the diverse line of Zorkis was ended in the mid 70’s.
Any Zorki rangefinder camera accepts the whole range of Leica threadmount lenses.
The original Zorki evolved into Zorki-2, Zorki-S and 2S. Another line started in 1951 with the Zorki-3 (3M, 3S, 4, 4K). Zorki-5 and Zorki-6 were in production for some time, but were outlived by Zorki-4 and Zorki-4K
This is the third version, type 1c (by Princelle), made in 1952.
This Zorki has an uncommon engraving in both Russian and English, since this version was made for export. Export models were subjected to more stringent quality control.
- Shutter speeds – Z, 1/20, 1/30/, 1/40, 1/60,
Peter Nelson –
I received my Zorki 1c yesterday with the lens cap and leather case.
The camera looks good and I have spent several hours hand cleaning and polishing it and the lens and now people think it’s a brand new camera.
The straps were missing (torn off) the leather case and I’m a little disapointed about this as they are not replaceable. However the case does look in very good condition other than the missing straps.
I am awaiting the film proceesor to have my prints made of the first (test) roll. I’m sure they will be fine!
Thanks Yuri!