fitting a kiev 4a lens hood

[dingadingdang]

Got my Kiev 4a from rusfoto yesterday, complete with lens hood.
I can't figure out how to fit it, the lugs inside it stop it being slid over the lens (I've got a jupiter 8 and helios 103), do you need to undo the front ring of the lens and place it behind that?
other than that camera seems to work fine, the timer seems a bit temperamental though, it worked once then stuck fully cocked, do you need to do something different to start the timer?

 

[Xmas]

dinga...

The self timers can be 'sticky' even when just cleaned e.g. if there has been minor damage to the self winder arm, as the self winder chassis is a delicate watch mechanism. If you try tapping gently with a finger nail, or wooden pencil, along the axis of the self winder winding shaft, that may restart the escapment, - clock work motor mechanism, it needs lots of gentle taps. If the grease is turning to wax, I'd not use the self timer, until after the next time you have the camera serviced. It may be on its origional grease. The year of manufacture is the first two digits of the serial number on the body and lenses.

The camera is like a mechanical clock and needs the lubricant replaced about once every 10 years, unless you use space age oils.

If you set the shutter to B and use the self timer it will give about 1 second.

The lens hood should be threaded or slip on, it should not have any lugs, the threads are 40.5 mm in diam, the slip on size may be 42mm, if you cannot easily get a hood you may need a stepping ring to, 43 or 46 or 49mm, the more normal sizes may be cheaper for hoods and filters but the hoods will tend to block the viewfinder, more.

The lens front parts can be removed, but only if the internal surfaces have spiders web (fungus) but not otherwise, it needs small screwdrivers and a large tray to catch the small screws which are difficult to use and easy to lose,

The Kiev is a real camera, you will be impressed with your first film, good luck.

You need to check you have a take up spool for the right hand chamber, if you remove the back, there should be a plastic or metal reel which can be removed (or lost).

Noel

 

[dingadingdang]

thanks Noel
hmm, I was sure I was doing something wrong, on the auction photographs the hood was shown in-situ.
I might try warming the hood up in hot water to expand it and have another go tonight. Definitely three pairs of lugs in there though!
I'll have a go at tapping the self timer, your comment on bulb setting makes me wonder if I had it on bulb last time it worked, I'll give that a try as well. I hope it's working, it was advertised as "perfect" and CLA'd.
Looking forward to taking some pics, I need to nip out to buy some film before my girlfriend wakes up and realises I'm up to something tomorrow!
Yeah, I've got the steel take up spool assembly, I looked at it confused for a good ten minutes until I worked out how to open it and was then even more confused to see no slot in the spool, I'm assuming the film is pushed into the steel cylinder by the sprockets and is allowed to spool freely?
Incidentally it's a 74
Craig

 

[40oz]

the self timer on my Kiev confused me at first, because on my other cameras, the self timer is triggered by pressing a button. On the Kiev's, it is started by sliding the little button behind the lever. You slide it gently to the left (when facing the camera) to start the timer. If you look closely, there probably is a tiny arrow inscribed on it - slide it gently in that direction.

The timer on my first Kiev was a bit sketchy at first - stopping for no apparent reason, apparently due to the camera having sat on a shelf for a decade or so. It seems to work fine now, since I have been using the camera for a few months.

 

[dingadingdang]

Ah, thanks 40oz, yeah, I missed that! it works perfectly after all!

 

[Xmas]

Craig
Looks like you have a reusable cassette rather than a take up spool. Looking from the back of the camera with the back removed, there are two chambers for film, on the left for the cassette with unexposed film on the right either for an empty cassette or a take up spool.
The camera will accept two cassettes, or one cassette and a take up spool. The inner spool can be removed from your resuable cassette as it is easier to load, without the outer shell, the inner (spool) from the cassette is (should be) held by the (a) spring so it does not normally drop out.
If this spool only has a central slot then you will need to scissor film to fit, this is inconvenient, and one can buy a proper spool form e-bay (for a Kiev), or make one from a commercial film cassette - a processing centre will give you a used cassette, remove inner spool and cut a slot with fine toothed file. There are instructions for this on the site/web as many Kievs (& Contax) come without a take up spool... The slot will hold the film by friction initially.
The only problem with 'home' made' spools is they are not accurately registered with the pin in the baseplate like a real Kiev take up spool.

If you use two cassettes one does not need to rewind one can wind the film into the 2nd cassette. Loading is also simpler as you load two cassettes which have been set up at home. But no one does this.

If your reusable cassette does not have a felt light trap it can be sold for a resonable amount, as many people use them for bulk film bought cheap. The felt reloadables are more difficult to reuse as the felt will scratch film when it gets dirty.
Noel
P.S. there are user manuals on the web.
40oz thanks...

 

[varjag]

You probably got a hood in wrong size. Soviet 42mm slip-on hood should install without effort.

 

[dingadingdang]

thanks guys
varjag, yeah it sounds like I might have, on the auction it was pictured with the lens hood fitted though!
Noel, thanks for the that, for the first film I attached the film to the reel with sticky tape, seemed to work fine, I'll look into modifying a 35mm reel with a slot like you suggest.
I'd heard reports about the spacing between images on the kiev being dodgy, I didn't have too many problems, just one image overlapping, the rest seem quite generous and accurate in their spacing.
I took some images with both Helios 103 and Jupiter 8 to check out which I prefer, the helios 103 is visibly sharper but seems to give me a lot more noise/grain (at the same aperture), is this to be expected?
Craig

 

[Xmas]

Craig

My Helios & J8 do produce similar symptoms, especially with Kchrome 64 and other grain films. The lenses may have been mistreated. The J8 was designed before WWII, it is difficult to compare samples.

Noel

 

[frederik@shaw.c]

The filter thread size on my Kiev 4 with Jupiter-8M is 40.5 mm. Nice camera, excellent rangefinder, very good glass.

 

[mike goldberg]

There are 3 little lugs on the inside of a Russian made 42mm plastic shade.
I had to cut them out with a Japanese knife, then do a bit of sanding to get it to fit.

A better quality hood is the vented, metal shade from eBay. See:

http://cgi.ebay.ca/New-Metal-40-5mm...0166070QQihZ017QQcategoryZ78999QQcmdZViewItem

Enjoy your 4a; I'm just beginning to use mine.
Ciao, mike