Zorki 3C is a real transformation away from the Leica. In that the Zorki camera is redesigned to take on it own look. The viewfinder housing is enlarged not only to handle the new viewfinder but also to handle the new shutter speed dial. A single speed dial carried over from the 3M that would puts all the shutter speed in one area atop the camera. Millisec. ajustment for flash bulbs of 0~1/25 of a sec. The first to have a Back that is fully removeable for easier film loading.
Zorki 4 ia a Zorki 3 with a selftimer added and the first Zorki to truely have a shutter designed for electronic flash. Of all the Zorki that were manufactured the Zorki 4 seemed to be the most loved by the Russian people and the outside world for it was the most produced of all Russian camera at over 2 million cameras.
The Zorki 4 would have its ups and its downs. The biggest would be that the slow shutter speed would just stop working.The slow speeds woud be removed when the MIR company woud take over and rename the the camera MIR. On the up side it had the ability to sevive the Zorki 5 and 6 to come back once again with the Zorki 4K with a single stoke advance lever and would be the last os the Zorkis to be produced. The age of the SLR had dawned.
The Zorki will go out of production in 1959 when the MIR company take charge of production. Zorki 4s' will still be producrd but they are Zorki 4 (MIR). The face plate will be engerved until 1962 and have embossed windows frames till 1961.
Zorki 5 type 1 has an engraves VFH and embossed square windows. Produced for about one year and a full step backward at the factory. The body of the Zorki 5 as did the Zorki C / 2C loading film throuhg the bottom plate. The removal of the selftimer you would think would be enough, it wasn't. This is followed by the removal of the slow shutter speed.
As electonic flash was becoming a standard a PC connection was added for X-sync. as well as M-sync. good or bad I don't know just more wire and a reajusted shutter.
Not all was a step backward the Zorki 5 did give us the fist Zorki with a film lever advance.
Zorki 5 Type 2 (MIR) same workings as the type 1 VFH windows are not embossed and secondary is now round. Most imporant it is a MIR camera name plate insted of engraved marking. First of the cameras to be produced for export.
Zorki 6 will correct the the down falls of the Zorki 5. The Zorki 6 though it look like the Zorki 5 type 2 is a new camera. The body is a two part casting as the Zorki 5 is one. This is for the hinged back of that is to be incorperated into the Zorki 6.
The selftimer taken away from the Zorki 4 will reapear in this model also.
As hard as MIR would try to Keep this camera and the Zorki 4k alive photography was changing. The Zenit which had made it start from a Zorki I was becoming more excepted and refined in the market place. Not the end of a camera but a new beginning.
The end!!! No Maybe they just had to many rods in the fire. The SLR camera and its' many changes and the production so many differant types of rangefinder cameras. Even the MIR company will be replaced.
