The
Zorki 4 was possibly the most popular of all Zorki cameras, with 1,715,677
cameras made by the KMZ factory in Krasnogorsk, Russia. The Zorki 4 was also
the first of the Zorki cameras to be exported in large numbers to the west. It
is a fully manual camera, and does not have a lightmeter.
When the
Zorki 4 rangefinder was introduced in 1956, its contemporaries included the
Zorki S, Zorki 2S, FED 2b, Leica M3 (introduced two years before), Leica IIIg,
Nikon S2, Canon VT, and Canon L1. The Zorki 4's production run outlasted all of
them. When it morphed into theZorki 4K by 1973, its contemporaries included the
FED 4b, Leica M4 and M5, Nikon F2, and Canon F-1 and Canon Canonet QL 17 GIII.
The Zorki
4 is basically a Zorki 3S with a self timer. It retained all of the features
and strong points of the 3S. The early bodies have a vulcanite body covering,
engraved shutter speeds, and strap lugs. Later bodies have fabric covering and
the shutter speeds (1/60 and 1/30 instead of 1/50 and 1/25) are silk-screened. By
the mid-sixties, the strap lugs had disappeared.