Zorki-6

Zorki-6 is a rangefinder film camera produced at the KMZ plant from 1959 to 1966 and is a further improvement of Zorki-5.

The Zorki-6 was considered a simpler and less expensive camera than the more advanced Zorki-4, and had fewer advanced features. But despite this, Zorki-6 is quite a good Soviet film camera, and in this article we will tell you why this is so.

Zorki-6 Specifications

Type: 35mm rangefinder camera
Manufacturer: KMZ plant
Production period: from 1959 to 1966
Format: 24x36cm on 135 film
Lens mount: m39 thread mount
Lens: Industar-50 f3.5/50 or Jupiter-8 f2.0/50
Rangefinder base: 65mm
Shutter: focal-plane shutter with speeds from 1/25 to 1/500 sec.
Viewfinder: optical parallax viewfinder not combined with the rangefinder
Lighmeter: none
Flash synchronisation: X and M sync contacts
Selftimer: none
Weight: 668 grams

The camera was essentially an improved version of the Zorki-5 and a more simplified version of the Zorki-4. But oddly enough, the more advanced Zorki-4, produced in the same years, did not have a film advance lever, while the Zorki-6 had this simple but useful function.

The main difference from Zorkiy-5 is that now you do not have to load the film from below, because Zorki-6 has an opening back cover.

The Zorki-6 rangefinder camera was designed on the basis of the Zenit-3M SLR camera. Zorki-6 is unificated with Zenit-3M. The shutter and body parts were largely the same and interchangeable.

That is, if you like rangefinder cameras, you will like Zorki-6 more, if you are a fan of SLR cameras, then you will like Zenit-3m more. Both cameras essentially have roughly the same functionality.

The Zorki-6 camera was equipped with an Industar-50 f3.5/50 or Jupiter-8 f2.0/50 lens. These lenses give a different picture, because they are designed according to different schemes. Nevertheless, both lenses are excellent examples of Soviet engineering.

Both lenses are assembled quite well, the glasses are of good quality and have fairly good coating. In addition, you can use a wide range of lenses with M39 thread mount, produced in the Soviet Union.

As in the Zorki-5 and all the first cameras of this series, the Zorki-6 was equipped with a very simple shutter with cloth curtains and shutter speeds from 1/25 to 1/500 sec.

This primitive shutter, copied from the very first Leica cameras, was installed on cameras of the KMZ plant until the 90s. But despite all its primitiveness, this shutter is not so bad, and the number of shutter speeds is enough to solve most photo tasks.

Unlike the Zorki-5, this model has a self-timer. This little detail can be useful for those who want to take film selfies (we believe such people exist) and those who want to shoot at 1/25 and not get blurry shots.

In addition, this camera has a diopter adjustment that allows people who wear glasses to use this camera without scratching the lens of the glasses on the ring around the viewfinder.

Conclusion

Despite all its obvious shortcomings and the fact that the Zorki-6 is a very simple device, we believe that this camera is worthy of you to pay attention to it.

The camera is assembled quite well, has good lenses, it is very easy and pleasant to use it. Zorki-6 does not have any electronics, which in our opinion is still a plus rather than a minus. With this camera, you can experience all the possibilities of full-fledged analog photography.