Zorki 4
Ask photographers about Soviet cameras from the second half of the 20th century and you're likely to get either a look of excitement or an audible eye roll. To be fair, many of the Soviet cameras from that era were not the technological marvels that their Leica, Canon, and Nikon contemporaries were, but whatever they may lack in build quality, they more than make up for in character. Perhaps no other camera captured both ends of the emotional spectrum more than the Zorki 4.
First produced in 1956, the Zorki 4 was designed to be the camera that the Soviet Union exported, which perhaps explains why it stayed in production into the 1970s. Its features were somewhat minimal, but that only added to its charm. The rangefinder patch was small and dim. The accessory shoe did not have a connector pin for flashes. The slow shutter speeds were inconsistent at best. The fanciest feature of the camera was the self-timer, which had been missing on earlier Zorki models. All of these combine to justify the response from the "eye roll" crowd and it's certainly easy to justify those feelings.
So what about the people who love them (or at least have learned to love them)? In short, if you have to ask the question, then the answer is likely to escape you, as well. The most practical reason is that it's possible to mount much more expensive M39 mount lenses from Leitz, Canon, and others, on the Zorki 4 and nobody will be the wiser when looking at the photographs. In reality, though, making photographs with a Zorki 4, as with other Soviet-era cameras, can transport you to a decade where the the allure of spaceflight captured the imagination of a generation, a handheld calculator was a month's rent, and 8-track tapes were treasured for their compactness. Triggering the shutter on a Soviet camera is as much a part of making images as looking at the negatives themselves. Those in the "eye roll" crowd may never understand the feeling, but that's okay.
So which crowd do you fall into? As long as you've held a Zorki, fired it, and waited for the experience to wash over you, you're free to your own opinion of the camera. And to your opinion of the other crowd.
ar/js
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