A look inside the Kiev 5

[nhchen]

Recently I bought a Kiev 5 camera off ebay with broken shutter straps. It was around $100 and was one of the earlier ones made in 1968 (sn 6800296). I've previously successfully changed the shutter ribbons on a kiev 2, a contax I and II, so I thought I'd give it a go since it shouldn't be too different.



This was what the finder looked like if any of you were wondering:



There wasn't many disassembly instructions on the Kiev 5 that I could find so I thought I'd take some pictures as I went along (these were taken using my phone so aren't the best quality).

When it arrived there were two main problems I could see:
1. the shutter functioned but the curtain was not straight
2. the light meter wasn't functioning and the plastic window on top was unglued

I tackled the shutter first...
The film plane was easily removed just like other kievs/contax IIs, with five screws. Once inside, sure enough one of the curtain ribbons had snapped!



So I went about replacing the ribbons one at a time. I used the ribbons bought from the ebay seller nobbysparrow. For the correct length, I measured the broken ribbon and based it on that. (if you're wondering why I put masking tape on the curtains, it's to hold them in place while I'm fiddling inside there. Once I managed to break the leather strips holding the curtain slats together so I thought I'd better be more careful this time round.)

One done...


Both replaced!


Now to re-tension the curtain springs. For the correct tension, filled a plastic bottle with water until it was 160g total and hanged that from the upper curtain.



So was I successful? Well partially, the shutter works for all the speeds except the 1/2 and B setting. The top curtain seems to be getting slightly stuck on those settings. I don't think it has anything to with dirty gears because the 1/5 sec speed functions perfectly. I have a slight feeling that the stitching of the ribbons is too thick and getting caught...

I'll post more on how I removed the top plate of the kiev 5 later.

regards,
Nathan

 

[Wulfthari]

Congratulations! I heard many stories about the Kiev5, a camera well worthy of restoration!

 

[nhchen]

Now to remove the top plate!
(these photos are actually me putting it all back together since I forgot to take pictures while I was disassembling it!)

The rewind crank can be unscrewed by holding rewind shaft. Then the black ring can be unscrewed using a rubber tool.


This shows the three parts form the rewind crank:



This the sequence to remove the light meter calculator on top. The big black dial with the shutter speeds is held by three tiny grub screws.


Now for the film winder:
I had alot of trouble removing the winder. Took me ages to figure out that the black disk around the shutter button was actually glued on there, revealing three screws underneath!



Here's what's underneath the shutter speed dial:



The black shutter speed arrow is held by two screws underneath the winder, removing this reveals one of the two screws holding the winder, the other is on the side.



Underneath the brass disk is the winder return spring. I had to remove it to get easy access to the four screws holding the whole assembly down. (although I think you can probably leave it in)





Removing those four screws and two other screws on the side of the top plate will allow you to take the top plate off the kiev 5.

I cleaned the contacts of the selenium cell of the light meter and now the meter is responsive to light again (although I still don't know how to use it).

This is what the rangefinder looks like from the front. I guess some of those screws in the middle window are for rangefinder adjustment.



I haven't ventured any further into the housing since everything else seems to be functioning, but will keep you posted if I do.

regards,
nathan

 

[nhchen]

Here's what the camera looks like now.


I managed to fix the 1/2 sec and B speeds. It seems I had made my stitching of the ribbons too bulky, not allowing the upper curtain to unwind easily after releasing the shutte. This was all fixed when I squashed the stitching with some pliers.

Now I guess I should go and take some photos with my newly revived Kiev 5....

nathan

 

[Pioneer]

That is great information. Thank you very much for posting all of that.

 

[newspaperguy]

Worthy of a sticky!

Well done, Sir...

 

[maryland_fotos]

A brave and enterprising soul, and like that the adventure had a happy ending. Thanks for systematically documenting what you did!

 

[Elmar Lang]

An excellent work, with highly informative pictures. Congratulations!

E.L.

 

[silvano]

I have just bought a kiev 5. It's in quite good shape but the rangefinder is out on both horizontal and vertical axes. Now I fixed the horizontal by using one of the screws on the front but I cannot find how to fix the vertical allignement. Can someone kindly help?
Thanks a lot!

 

[Ko.Fe.]

According to this link:
http://rangefinder.ru/articles/40/1/Yustirovka_dalnomera_Kiev-5
Ring - 3 for vertical alignment. Bolt - 2 is fixing the ring 3.

 

[silvano]

Thanks. Very useful link!!!
This evening I will try the 'surgery' 🙄

 

[bobby_novatron]

Great work! Thanks for posting this CLA info on a very interesting camera.

 

[nhchen]

Hi everyone, I got another Kiev 5 recently. The shutter in it was jammed, so to figure out what was wrong I had to go in much deeper than last time. This one was made in 1970, two years after the first one I got. There are a few cosmetic differences between them: the winding knob is a different shape, the self timer lever has changed from one same as on the Kiev II's to one found on the later Kiev 4's, the rangefinder eyepiece is now round, and the flash sync port has moved to the right. This one also has a Helios 94 50mm f1.8 lens, compared to the Jupiter 8 HB 50mm f2 lens on the earlier one. The majority of the Kiev 5's I've seen online have been the later model, apart from the earlier one I got a few years ago, I haven't seen another one for sale like it.

Left: 1968 model Right: 1970 model

 

[nhchen]

If you're familiar with the Contax II/Kiev family of cameras, getting inside isn't too difficult. Like I posted above, once the winding lever is removed, the top cover can be taken off. Inside is the selenium light meter (this can be removed as a single unit),

and under the meter is the rangefinder optics.

Once that is removed, the top casting can be removed in a single piece just like on the contax II/kiev cameras. It's held in place by 5 screws inside the body (2 of these screws also hold the strap lugs on the camera). Now with just the shutter mechanism left, the Kiev 5 looks very similar to its relatives

 

[nhchen]

Since the mechanism had a jam somewhere, I decided to take the shutter curtains out, thinking that maybe the gears had unsynced somehow.

But after a long time I realised that one of the gears for the slow speed mechanism had completely seized! I had to put some oil and heat it using a soldering iron to free it up and remove it for cleaning. You can see the rust underneath it once I removed it.

Once I found that, putting everything back went without too much trouble. The camera feels well made and it feels as smooth as some of the Contax II cameras I have when winding the shutter.

Here is a few more picture of inside the camera:

While the shutter mechanism is similar to the Kiev II/4, there are additional parts on the Kiev 5 for its frame counter and lever wind.

The lens mount has also been changed, none of the internal mount contax/kiev lenses (5cm sonnar/jupiter) will fit. Only the external mount lenses (Jupiter 12, 9, 11) can be used, as well as the external mount lenses specially designed for this camera (Jupiter 8HB, Helios 94) but these don't fit on any other kievs.


Overall I feel that if you're familiar with going inside a Contax II or Kiev II/4 camera, then the Kiev 5 shouldn't be too challenging. It's the only camera in this family with a lever wind, and the rangefinder window is very large, bright and easy to focus with. Adjustment of the rangefinder is also alot easier than on a Contax. Interestingly, I read somewhere (here?) that the Kiev 5 models made a few years after this (1973?) have an additional 85mm frameline in the rangefinder.

I hope someone will find this useful if they ever decide to tackle this camera for themselves.

Regards,
nathan

 

[Roger Hicks]

Thanks, Nathan.

Cheers,

R.