Zorki-4

Zorki-4 is a Soviet rangefinder camera produced at the KMZ plant from 1956 to 1973 and is a further improvement of the Zorki-3C camera.

Zorki-4 is rightfully one of the most famous and truly good Soviet film cameras. Why is it so? In this Zorki-4 camera review, we will tell you about it.

Zorki-4 Specifications

Type: 35mm rangefinder camera
Manufacturer: KMZ plant
Production period: from 1956 to 1973
Format: 24x36cm on 135 film
Lens mount: m39 thread mount
Lens: Jupiter-8M f2.0/50
Rangefinder base: 38mm
Shutter: focal-plane shutter with speeds from 1 to 1/1000 sec.
Viewfinder: optical parallax viewfinder combined with the rangefinder
Lighmeter: none
Flash synchronisation: sync socket “X”, sync speeds from 1/25 s and longer
Selftimer: mechanical
Weight: 668 grams

The Zorki-4 camera is the most popular among this series of Soviet rangefinder cameras. Despite its mass production, the quality of the camera has not fallen to the very bottom, so the Zorki-4 is a quite well assembled camera, and in our time you can still find this camera in good condition.

Zorki-4 is made from a pleasant material, the camera feels very nice in the hands, and all the knobs and buttons turn and are pressed very smoothly.

This Soviet film camera did not have a light meter, which in our opinion is not a big drawback, because you can always install a light meter in your mobile phone.

Unlike FED cameras produced in the same years, Zorki-4 had a large and bright viewfinder with a bright rectangular rangefinder spot in the center.

Zorki-4 is equipped with a Jupiter-8 f2.0/50 lens. As we said earlier, this lens is one of the best Soviet 50mm lenses. Despite the fact that it was assembled in the Soviet Union, the characteristic features of the Sonnar scheme are very clearly visible in the photos made by this lens.

Also, do not forget that with the Zorki-4 camera you can use a wide range of Soviet lenses with M39 thread mount from wide-angle Jupiter-12 to long-focus Jupiter-11.

As in previous models, the Zorki-4 camera is equipped with a shutter with cloth curtains and shutter speeds from 1 to 1/1000 seconds.

In our opinion, this is an excellent set of shutter speeds, which is enough for most tasks facing the film photographer.

As we wrote in the previous article, the only significant difference between Zorki-3C and Zorki-4 is that the second one has a self-timer. It seems that this difference is insignificant, but for the Soviet Union it is sufficient to give the camera a new name.

The camera still does not have a film advance lever. This detail will appear in the next version of the camera called Zorki-4K. The absence of this detail, of course, greatly slows down the work with the camera, but in our opinion it is not a significant drawback.

Conclusion

The team of our site can safely say that the Zorki-4 camera is one of the best Soviet rangefinder cameras.

This camera contains almost everything that can be collected in a film camera. Zorki-4 is well built, has a good set of shutter speeds, is equipped with an excellent lens, has a clean and comfortable viewfinder.

Nowadays, you can find a Zorki-4 camera in good quality and at a fairly low price. If after the purchase you send the camera to CLA, you will get a beautiful and reliable camera with which you will take many interesting photos and enjoy the process of working with the camera.