About Kiev light leaks, and sudden end of holidays

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
 
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Is that a tiny ~1mmx5mm gap immediately above the top of the sprockets? I can see shiney chromed metal in there. Maybe I should blank it off? I get the occasional crescent shaped fog patch on the R side of the image (L of the frame really). Possibly as the film transports to the takeup spool.

Murray
Brisbane, Oz
 
I take a piece of black fabric tape and fold it over on itself lengthwise. I do not fold it completely in half. I leave just a sliver of the sticky stuff exposed. I then stick this to the rangefinder beam glass folding it towards the front and then back over the shuttercrate. In effect sandwhiching it between the rangefinder beam and the shuttercrate top. It then continues back over the top over the shuttercrate towards the film plane. It has worked to stop light leaks from the flash shoe and the rangefinder window. I will try to take some pics later this week to explain.
 
Murray Kelly said:
Is that a tiny ~1mmx5mm gap immediately above the top of the sprockets? I can see shiney chromed metal in there. Maybe I should blank it off? I get the occasional crescent shaped fog patch on the R side of the image (L of the frame really). Possibly as the film transports to the takeup spool.

Murray
Brisbane, Oz

I am not sure for Heb-lish shortcommings what is "shiney chromed metal". But you should notice a kind of perpendicular cut along the channel filled with the wire, very close to the take up spool, at the upper side. Tape it !

Anyway, as a general rule either in the darkroom or within an FSU camera, like Iskra, or Kiev, I go for the preventive method: Wherever I can black tape, I do it. This rule never betrayed me.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
TVphotog said:
I take a piece of black fabric tape and fold it over on itself lengthwise. I do not fold it completely in half. I leave just a sliver of the sticky stuff exposed. I then stick this to the rangefinder beam glass folding it towards the front and then back over the shuttercrate. In effect sandwhiching it between the rangefinder beam and the shuttercrate top. It then continues back over the top over the shuttercrate towards the film plane. It has worked to stop light leaks from the flash shoe and the rangefinder window. I will try to take some pics later this week to explain.

Hi TV,
pictures please, I cannot follow you at all !. But you seem to comfirm light penetrates from the 4AM/M hot shoe.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
I have used the black felt from empty 35mm film canisters

I have used the black felt from empty 35mm film canisters

The only light leaks that I have experienced with Kiev cameras is along the upper channel where you slide in the back cover after loading film. This channel is usually filled with yak string of some kind and I have seen kievs without any baffling in this channel. The light leaks will show up at the botton of your prints as vertical lines or bursts of light. Every single one of my Kiev's has been refitted with thin slices of the black felt that I removed from empty film canisters (the film canisters you can get from any film lab). I use contact cement to glue tiny stips of this felt by pushing it in the channel with a very tiny screwdriver.
 
mravigna said:
The only light leaks that I have experienced with Kiev cameras is along the upper channel where you slide in the back cover after loading film. This channel is usually filled with yak string of some kind and I have seen kievs without any baffling in this channel. The light leaks will show up at the botton of your prints as vertical lines or bursts of light. Every single one of my Kiev's has been refitted with thin slices of the black felt that I removed from empty film canisters (the film canisters you can get from any film lab). I use contact cement to glue tiny stips of this felt by pushing it in the channel with a very tiny screwdriver.
I use contact cement to glue lengths of black knitting wool along this channel. A bit less fiddly than bits of felt.
 
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