Kiev 4 Rangefinder Camera - Curing Light Leaks
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- Опубликовано: 23 июл 2024
- In the last video looking at my 1975 Kiev 4, Soviet made Rangefinder Camera, I wasn't very impressed with the build quality, or the sharpness of the Jupiter 8M lens, and after having the first test film developed, I noticed that there was a small light leak. I'd already shot a second roll by that time, but that roll hadn't yet gone to the lab for processing. The second roll was also shot on Ilford FP4 but this time I'd pushed it one stop to 250 ISO, and as you'd expect with a more sensitive film, the light leak showed up more. So it was time to take the camera apart again in an attempt to cure the light leak once and for all. I found several potential leak areas although the main suspect is in the area of the sprocket drive gear shaft.
I'll put a link here to the follow up video (assuming I make a follow up) to see if the leak has successfully been cured.
In the meantime, here's a link to the first video featuring the Kiev 4:
• Kiev 4 Rangefinder Cam...
Start 00:00
Light Leaks 00:57
Tracing the light leaks 01:44
Light Seals 05:06
Disassembly 06:06
Summary 09:09
Outro 09:56
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Outro Music
"As Yet Untitled"
by GrumpyTim (available to download from GrumpyTim's Bandcamp page)
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Nice to know if a problem with a light leak develops. For now, my Kiev 4 is perfect.
Hi Mno Liberal, I would think that if your Kiev is ok now, it'll probably stay that way - I have a hunch that my copy might have leaked from the day it left the factory - it would explain why it didn't look like it had been used much. Hopefully the latest work I've done will sort the problem, but if it persists, I'll just have to do a bit more work on it.
your hands are magic for reparing camers.
Not as magic as your hands for old engines Joseph. Cheers for watching.
@@GrumpyTim ohh thanks mate
Nice video, light leaks are annoying. People who don't know about light leaks might claim they captured a ghost or an ufo/alien in one of those examples :)
Funny you should say that ohjajohh, one time a lady proudly told me about the shooting star she'd managed to photograph at a location that I photographed regularly - I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was lensflare from a bright light directly opposite, and that I usually cloned it out when I couldn't avoid getting the flare in the shot!!!
It is possible your camera miss an extra baffle over the one you indicate at 5.56 of the video. Also my Kiev 4A has another baffle behind the range finder.
You can check those in my "Kiev 4A c.1959 - Step by Step Reassembly" video.
Best of luck!
Hi Chris, I'd watched your Kiev 4A video just before (or just after) I got my Kiev, it was good to see how stuff fitted together. Mine does have the baffle behind the rangefinder, but I'm thinking that it might either be fitted incorrectly, or damaged, or maybe just badly cut when it was made, because the amount of torch light that can get into that gearbox area above the sprocket is a bit of a surprise. I'll probably take the thing apart again once I've finished the current film and have another look.
I am 99% sure that there is no additional metal frame that protects from this particular light leak, I had exactly the same light leak on my Kiev 4. This light goes in the gap between the cover that you removed to get to the shutter. Next to the right upper screw.
My older 4A has an extra baffle. They are lost sometimes. Though i don't know if there is the same baffle in newer Kiev4 models. You can see that baffle at 2.38 of my video on a 4A.
It's definitely worth checking that the extra baffle that chrisdowntherabbithole mentions is in place - I know these sometimes get ripped out when people try to repair these cameras - mine is there but I suspect that it isn't doing it's job very well because a lot of torch light can get into that gearbox area above the film drive sprocket.
Not a great build quality.... Sort of what you would expect from the USSR. It would be good to know if that has fixed it though.
Cheers Ben, hopefully I'll rattle through the colour film fairly quickly and then I'll know whether the fix has been successful or not - I would say that I'm confident, but I'm really not! I already have another couple of things to check next time I take it apart - I'll pay more attention to the baffle (that I didn't show) behind the rangefinder mirror - it is there, but it could be badly fitted, badly cut or damaged, because I was surprised at just how much light was able to get into that gear section of the camera.
@@GrumpyTim Some of the stuff from the USSR was shocking!
Yeah, that does appear to be the case at times, but it's still intriguing to see it all the same.
People on russian websites say to only look for Kievs made before 1965 - their build quality is much more consistently good.
@@ka4estvo Interesting information.