First posted on the 52 Rolls Project blog here.

Another week, another roll.

And, another camera.

One of the aims of the project for me, along with shooting more often and getting better at processing and scanning, was to use some of the cameras that have been taking things easy in cardboard boxes in the garage.

Camera number 17 (and roll 48) is my lovely Зоркий-4 or Zorki 4. As I’m sure you’ll know, they’re a Russian rangefinder built near Moscow (specifically, and because I love how the cyrillic alphabet looks, at Красногорский механический завод or the Mechanical Factory of Krasnogorsk) in huge numbers, between 1954 and 1973.

It is a lovely thing to hold – getting on for a kilo of solid metal, glass and vulcanite. Using it can be tricky though. There’s no meter of course and the shutter speed can only be set AFTER the film has been advanced. Doing the reverse can damage the shutter permanently. Winding on is done with a knurled knob rather than a lever, something else that takes some getting used to.

And then there the rangefinder technique that you either get on with or you don’t and while the view is nice and bright, you see nothing like the full view caught by the lens. The lens focuses smoothly, once you realise the difference between the focus and aperture ring on the lens which are very similar.

Once all that is done, it’s time to fire the shutter and that can be quite an event. Not on a Bronica scale of course, nothing is, but a surprisingly loud, metallic ‘snap’ for such a small body.

The results are fantastically analogue. Using Fujicolor c200, one of the cheapest films there is, probably helps. But that Jupiter-8 lens is nice and sharp as you can see below. Pretty good for a camera that is 52 years old and can be bought for peanuts (unless of course you shop on Lomography – they want £175!).

Pictures were taken on a mooch around Leicester in the sunshine, and include a few snaps of my favourite building in the city, the Charles Wilson.

Gubbins:

Zorki 4, Fujifilm c200, processed and scanned by FilmDev.

To have a look through my previous rolls, click here.