Grey Zorki S

Are any of the two cameras I got here original? Do the real Grey Zorkis come with rigid lens or that's just a variation?



Left serial # is 57281280
Right serial # is 58098337

Thanks,
Vlad

Hello Vlad

The right one looks to be original, but I have never seen such a gray Zorki C with 58... serial number (only 1956 and some in 1957).

Best wishes - Guido

Thank you Guido, the right one was bought from a household in Moscow by friend of mine, so this was not from a reseller, I'm fairly certain it is original since it's been in the family for a while, I just wanted to double check to make sure that covering was not changed over the years.. Also do these need to come with the rigid lens to be complete or they were bundled with collapsible lens as well?

Vlad

Hello Vlad

Sorry, about the lenses there are no notes in my database ... But the Zorki C came with both forms of lenses IIRC (Industar 50).

Best wishes - Guido

Hello
There were an inovation to do grey cameras at 1958/1959.
Several Zorkies have so made Zorki S model 5 and model 6. but I do nor know any Zorki 4, Mir or Zenits being so, although there were rare models of "All Grey" Kristalls
In Zorkies there were common practice use the collapsible Industar 50
LP

Hi Vlad,
I was itching to put my hand up to answer this so I made another attempt to join the forum (see intro).

Being a bit anal, I have a database of "S"s and can tell you that nearly all if not all Zorki-Ss came with collapsible Industar-22s and most Zorki-2Ss came with rigid 50s. The small number of 2Ss with collapsibles seem to be equally distributed between 22s and 50s and the question arises whether these were original.

The majority of the Zorki-Ss were covered in black vulcanite. The first black nylon I note dates from the beginning of 1956 (s/n 56005670). The earliest green from the middle of 1956 (s/n 56047404) and the earliest grey from late 1956 (s/n 56114952). Grey is the rarest with only a couple (note that my recording of finishes is less exhaustive than other details).

Yours is the 1958 with the highest serial numbers I have seen - I have 3 others recorded.
Cheers,
Paul

I don't think I was clear - I didn't mean the 58s were grey, they're not. Also your question aout whether the grey nylon was original, its certainly an original covering material. Considering how it is generally disliked by seemingly all, it would be very unlikely that this would have been used (if available from the factory) to replace some other finish. I am not aware that any of the nylon coverings are more or even equally collectable as the black vulcanite. The camera on the left is certainly not original.

If you let me know the lens serial numbers, I can give an indication if they are in the correct range. I would expect the the 1957 to have a 71 prefix and the 1958 may be 71 or 80.

I see, thanks Paul! The other covering (one the left) looks too modern too me as well, so I'm pretty sure myself it's a mod.

That database of yours - maybe you can cut and paste it into the wiki entry for Zorki-S? It would be extremely helpful for everyone and highly appreciated! Thanks!!

Any kind of electronic materials that you may have offline would be great to place into catalog, I will be happy to help you with that if you don't know how to do that. Just let me know! It's great to have another collector here who has the historical data on production lines! Thanks!!!


Cheers,
Vlad

Vlad,
My database actually developed from trying to understand the history of Industar 22 and 50 collapsible lenses and to this I added post war FEDs/Industar 10s. To this got added additional info, particularly for models I own.

eg like everyone, I knew that there were 2 types of FED-1g, one with numbering on the top plate and one with it on the back plus the commemorative series. I now know that: around 455849, the eyepieces on the back changed from what I call a wide rim to a narrow rim. They changed back to wide for what seems to be 2 very limited commemorative series with numbers commencing 4656 and 4684 (there may be other series that I have not identified) and cameras in between (I have 466708) before returning to the new narrow rim. The first number I have seen on the back is 510636 yet 511970 still has it on top. Somewhere after 547624 and before 641973 the shutter crate changed to what looks like a Zorki-1c type ie flat spring, big screw with normal slot and integral retaining lip. The only visible difference appears to be that the locking nuts on the tension setting screws remain traditional FED two sided rather than Zorki 4 sided. The sample size of 3 cameras is small but they are consistent and I have no contrary examples.

I need to do a fair amount of tidying up before I can post anything. Until Christmas, I will be flat out with pre during and post arrangements for a school band tour to the Hong Kong Jazz Festival but after that I will take it on board.
Cheers,
Paul

That is very useful information Paul, thank you, I will try to sort it into appropriate catalog entries. Regarding any kind of catalog additions, no worries, there is no time limit, this is supposed to be a laid back hobby site, so whenever you get to it.. I'm sure it'll stir up a lot of discussion!

Thank you!
Vlad.

Just noticed this one on Ebay. Covering looks identical to the one in your post...... Interesting

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=280278103064&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=018

Of course these Zorki-C with nylonettes were frontrunner for KMZ. I think much easier to produce, the nylon-sheet was only glued on the housing, much faster to produce many cameras. But why did they stop to produce these grey ones in early 1959. Was it because the grey nylon got dirty easily. My grey Zorki-C has a leather-case with blue velvet inside and even I have blue marks on the backside of the nylon at the 2 places where you push the buttons to close the case. The green Zorki-C has red veltet inside the case. If you use cases without velvet the nylon will get really dirty. I tried to clean my grey nylonette with hair shampoo but couldn't remove the light blue dots. I will keep it as it is, this is natural and original for grey nylonettes, 2 blue dots.