R
ruben
Guest
Yeap, finally I could seat and dis-assemble the top casting for fixing my light leak.
There is a classic type of light leak in the Kievs, and it shows at the neg as a vertical flare, more or less at the frame side, not the center. This wasn't my problem but let's address it anyway.
This type, in my opinion, is due to light penetrating from above the sprockets. Not the sprockets themelves, but a near gap showing once you take off the back, and give a close look at the area between the upper sprocket and the next screw.
Those of us having dis-assembled Kievs, have found from time to time at the top casting, a curious free piece of black metal, designed to block this leak. In its absence you can glue a small piece of cardboard, covering a small gap you will find at the lower side of the top casting, without dis-assembling.
No need to say that the wooden wire along the channel meeting the upper border of the back, must be present, or substituted.
Besides the substitute offered at the KSS, you can do by attaching home cotton with the help of a screwdriver. At the same time you push the cotton at high pressure inside the channel, you should also twist it as if you were making a long wire out of small pieces of cotton.
When you are done with it, you can black paint the white cotton with the help of a marker.
Now to my Kiev 4AM horizontal light leak
Instead of the abovementioned light leak, my negs doing at daylight, showed a constant strong horizontal light leak at the lower side of the image.
Since the negative runs in any camera, in a reversed way, i.e. the lower part of the image runs at upper side of the camera, the obvious conclusion couldn't be but that the leak is comming somewhere near the upper curtain.
So upon dis-assembling the top casting, I brought the camera almost into contact with my table light, to try noticing where could light be penetrating from.
As I suspected, some light was penetrating from the small rangefinding window. So I black taped in detail.
But my real big surprise came from observing the hot shoe. Wow! great gaps around the hot shoe. I think this is particular of models 4AM/M.
And, as you may know, at the center edge of the top curtain there is a gap on the alloy casting designed to enable the latch to release or lock the curtains.
Therefore if this gap is illuminated through direct light comming through the borders of the hot shoe, it cannot but give us an exemplary light leak.
So by now my Kiev is ready, with some additional improvements, let's see if I was correct in my leak assumptions with my next roll.
Cheers,
Ruben
There is a classic type of light leak in the Kievs, and it shows at the neg as a vertical flare, more or less at the frame side, not the center. This wasn't my problem but let's address it anyway.
This type, in my opinion, is due to light penetrating from above the sprockets. Not the sprockets themelves, but a near gap showing once you take off the back, and give a close look at the area between the upper sprocket and the next screw.
Those of us having dis-assembled Kievs, have found from time to time at the top casting, a curious free piece of black metal, designed to block this leak. In its absence you can glue a small piece of cardboard, covering a small gap you will find at the lower side of the top casting, without dis-assembling.
No need to say that the wooden wire along the channel meeting the upper border of the back, must be present, or substituted.
Besides the substitute offered at the KSS, you can do by attaching home cotton with the help of a screwdriver. At the same time you push the cotton at high pressure inside the channel, you should also twist it as if you were making a long wire out of small pieces of cotton.
When you are done with it, you can black paint the white cotton with the help of a marker.
Now to my Kiev 4AM horizontal light leak
Instead of the abovementioned light leak, my negs doing at daylight, showed a constant strong horizontal light leak at the lower side of the image.
Since the negative runs in any camera, in a reversed way, i.e. the lower part of the image runs at upper side of the camera, the obvious conclusion couldn't be but that the leak is comming somewhere near the upper curtain.
So upon dis-assembling the top casting, I brought the camera almost into contact with my table light, to try noticing where could light be penetrating from.
As I suspected, some light was penetrating from the small rangefinding window. So I black taped in detail.
But my real big surprise came from observing the hot shoe. Wow! great gaps around the hot shoe. I think this is particular of models 4AM/M.
And, as you may know, at the center edge of the top curtain there is a gap on the alloy casting designed to enable the latch to release or lock the curtains.
Therefore if this gap is illuminated through direct light comming through the borders of the hot shoe, it cannot but give us an exemplary light leak.
So by now my Kiev is ready, with some additional improvements, let's see if I was correct in my leak assumptions with my next roll.
Cheers,
Ruben
Last edited by a moderator: