Zorki 6 & Caffenol – Finding, fixing and developing – a new old experience

Back at the beginning of June this year (2025) while searching the dreaded eBay looking for my next new old camera to add to my growing collection I came across a Zorki 6 in “reasonable condition” with original case (I had already decided I needed a Russian rangefinder)…  reasonable for a camera from 1965 meant a stiff wind-on lever, in need of a good clean, a lens which barely turned to focus and shutter curtains that almost worked but twisted sideways when closing.

As a self confessed muppet, I took the plunge and paid the price. As they say you get what you pay for. A week later a totally unusable camera arrived on my door step so now I have to get to work and fix what I can, but where do I start? Why seek out a Zorki 6? The answer to that is Youtube. A guy by the name of Alin Ciortea has a whole series of how to dismantle and rebuild the Zorki 6. So with kitchen table cleared, screwdrivers and tweezers in hand and the videos from Alin I set about compiling a random box of small bits.

It turned out the lever return spring had got detached from its anchor point and was dragging around the plate, the shutter curtain runners needed a bit of cleaning and the old Russian grease in the lens and elsewhere in the camera had turned to more of a glue so had to be cleaned off and regreased. It also needed new foam light seals. The joy of these cameras turns out you can (with guidance and learning) pull it apart, clean, oil and grease and then rebuild.

A 2nd visit to eBay secured an Industar 61 which just happened to come with a free fully working FED 4. The zebra colour scheme looks more a match to the Zorki 6 and the optical performance apparently way better than the original Industar 50. I now use this new combo regularly (examples below) and have evolved a growing respect for the camera designers and builders of yesteryear. I can’t see my Sony a7 working in 60 years time.

Testing the camera

Fomopan film, ISO 200, exposure settings using myLightmeter on iPhone, developed, digitised on Sony a7 final touches Affinity Photo

So now we come to the next dilemma, I am taking more pictures, more pictures means more developing and at £7-£9 a film it adds up.

Enter Caffenol. The magic mix of coffee, soap and vitamin C. Now I don’t want to go through the whole how to mix and use saga. If you want to know more then look it up and enjoy the research but I wanted to create a mix that I can take away with me on holiday as dry ingredients, doesn’t need scales or other fiddly things and I can use with ease. After a bit of trial and error I have settled on the following. 1 x 35mm film = 300ml of developer in a paterson tank = 2 film pots of coffee + 1/2 film pot of vit C + 1/2 film pot soap flakes.

Mix well and can be used to develop 2 films (1 at a time @ 9 minutes, tumbling often). I have not tried 3 films yet. This makes it £0.27p per film… KERCHING!!

The pictures from the Zorki 6 here were developed with Caffenol. I find a forgiving film best and am happy with the Fomapan 200 but I have also used it to develop some really old film taken by my father-in-law between 40 and 25 years ago which have sat around in his garage, hot in summer, cold in winter. They waited patiently to go through the process.

The thing to remember is that Caffenol isn’t perfect and this is where the digital scan and filters come in and developing time needs increasing but by how much???

You’ll notice that from the photo below which shows developed films drying in the utility room that some film has cleared better than others but so far I have results across the board.. all hail the clothes peg!!

Typically I developed these old films, a mix of Kodak Gold, Agfa, Konica and the best that Boots the Chemist could offer for 15 minutes. Fixer is still a commercially available product as I can not find a good homebrewable offering that can go down the sink. Digitised with the Sony a7 &  Affinity Photo to draw out the image.

So there we have it, I have found, fixed, used and developed and my love for this new old hobby grows (as does my camera collection)…

All the best 35mmc

Mark

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