That's right. All Soviet era rangefinders based in the earlier Leica design require that you wind on the film before setting or changing the shutter speed. The extent of my knowledge is that reversing the order of these two operations WILL break the camera so I think of it like setting the date on a watch between 10.00 and 2.00 and never do it.Thermexman wrote: ↑Fri Jun 18, 2021 9:41 amMine is deffo not a bottom loader as you say. It dates from 1968 as denoted by the first two digits of the serial number. I can’t remember the specifics as I’ve owned it for some time but I seem to recall that if you change the shutter speed dial without first cocking the shutter, you end up with things getting out of step? A bit like setting the date on a watch between 10pm & 2 am?tikkathree wrote: ↑Fri Jun 18, 2021 5:17 am
Oh you should run film through it but first be sure you've not got leaky curtains The four being a back loader, access to the film curtains is easy and fixing pinhole leaks is an easy enough and well-documented fix. Have to admit I wasn't aware of a generic film advance issue though...... You weren't by any chance thinking about the bottom loading earlier generations of Zorki?
When I bought it, changing the shutter speed made no difference to the actual speed at which it fired and the rewind mechanism didn’t engage. I researched it but couldn’t find a fix. Having delved inside for a nosey around, I spotted some part of the mechanism was fouling so fiddled with it and got lucky.
My job/working hours changed and the resultant loss of free time has meant that the hobby is on the back burner. Watches then took over!
I can point you to trusted service men in former soviet states but the reality is that it's often cheaper to buy another body rather than ship yours to them.
I've got several Zorki and Fed bodies and enjoy using them almost daily. Here's one such.