Kiev 4A Problem

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armphoto

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As many of you who own Kiev 4a's know that the lens can be focused by either turning the dial or by turning the lens itself. I recently acquired a Kiev 4A 1972 version, but there's a problem. The focusing dial on the camera does not rotate/focus the lens. The dial just turns freely and it's loose. The small lever at the focusing dial does work. It releases the lock when the lens is locked at infinity. Does anyone have a fix for this? I tried to google it but nothing came up.
 
I got it fixed by taking off the front plate which has 6 screws. Turns out the screw was loose on the focusing dial which turns the gears which in turn turn the lens to focus. I also cleaned and lubricated the helical. Thanks for reading.
 
armphoto said:
I got it fixed by taking off the front plate which has 6 screws. Turns out the screw was loose on the focusing dial which turns the gears which in turn turn the lens to focus. I also cleaned and lubricated the helical. Thanks for reading.
Click to expand...

Glad you got it sorted. Not sure what lens you're using but do remember the wheel is ONLY for use with the internal-bayonet mount lenses (i.e. Jupiter 8 and Helios 102). Do not use it with any lens that fits to the outer bayonet (Jupiter 9, 11, 12 etc)!
 
wolves3012 said:
Glad you got it sorted. Not sure what lens you're using but do remember the wheel is ONLY for use with the internal-bayonet mount lenses (i.e. Jupiter 8 and Helios 102). Do not use it with any lens that fits to the outer bayonet (Jupiter 9, 11, 12 etc)!
Click to expand...

Thanks, I am using jupiter 8. Now that you mentioned it, after fixing this and cleaning/lubricating and reassembling the lens base plate and the helical, I noticed the VF is out of whack. It wont focus close range nor infinity! I need to disassemble again and make sure I am mating the inner helical race with the right first thread. The outer helical race has three entry points. I must have used one of the wrong ones! Arghh!!! I love my life with these FSU cameras!
 
Do you mean the viewfinder or the rangefinder? You do not adjust either of the two by doing anything on the helicoid. The problem is very unlikely to be there unless you camera or lens has machining problems.

The adjustment of the rangefinder requires re-adjustment of a lever position seated near the RF window. You will need to remove the top plate and perhaps remove the shutter. When doing this it is a very good idea to check that the lens is well adjusted to the particular camera. You will need lots of patience and care. Good luck.
 
popavvakum said:
Do you mean the viewfinder or the rangefinder? You do not adjust either of the two by doing anything on the helicoid. The problem is very unlikely to be there unless you camera or lens has machining problems.

The adjustment of the rangefinder requires re-adjustment of a lever position seated near the RF window. You will need to remove the top plate and perhaps remove the shutter. When doing this it is a very good idea to check that the lens is well adjusted to the particular camera. You will need lots of patience and care. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Hello and thanks. I meant the rangefinder. Sorry. One other thing I noticed after I reassembled the helicoid is that when the lens gets to the range of 2 - .9 meters, It becomes stiffer and harder to turn whereas before it was turning really smoothly in all distances.
 
The helicoids may have several positions where you can join the two parts, where the two threads enter each other. One of them is correct, all others, differing by one, two, three etc thread step(s), result in misplaced focus and shorter stroke. If the lens turning becomes very stiff do not force it but, if you taken the two halves apart, try to re-assemble the helicoid altering the starting position. Notice the one from which you start by two light scratches on the opposing sides and notice the effects of moving by one thread step clockwise... Patience is a virtue....
 
popavvakum said:
The helicoids may have several positions where you can join the two parts, where the two threads enter each other. One of them is correct, all others, differing by one, two, three etc thread step(s), result in misplaced focus and shorter stroke. If the lens turning becomes very stiff do not force it but, if you taken the two halves apart, try to re-assemble the helicoid altering the starting position. Notice the one from which you start by two light scratches on the opposing sides and notice the effects of moving by one thread step clockwise... Patience is a virtue....
Click to expand...

OK, so I got the helicoid threaded right. The RF is way better now than before, but it's still off about 1.8 meters close focused and off infinity as well. I need to adjust the RF which from reading the Kiev survival site instructions, is a long, painstaking process.
 
armphoto said:
OK, so I got the helicoid threaded right. The RF is way better now than before, but it's still off about 1.8 meters close focused and off infinity as well. I need to adjust the RF which from reading the Kiev survival site instructions, is a long, painstaking process.
Click to expand...

It's pretty tedious unless the front corrector will do the trick, which doesn't sound like the case for yours. The good bit is that they usually stay spot on afterwards unless you do something drastic, like dropping the camera...in which case the RF will likely be the least of your problems!
 
armphoto said:
OK, so I got the helicoid threaded right. The RF is way better now than before, but it's still off about 1.8 meters close focused and off infinity as well. I need to adjust the RF which from reading the Kiev survival site instructions, is a long, painstaking process.
Click to expand...

Just one more thing to doublecheck. Did you have the front plate removed? If I recall correctly the small upper screws (2+2) near rangefinder and finder windows are of different length. If by accident longer screws are fitted to the rangefinder window side it prevents at least focusing to infinity. Helicoid will move, but the coinciding image stops moving before helicoid reaches the infinity marker.
 
wolves3012 said:
It's pretty tedious unless the front corrector will do the trick, which doesn't sound like the case for yours. The good bit is that they usually stay spot on afterwards unless you do something drastic, like dropping the camera...in which case the RF will likely be the least of your problems!
Click to expand...

You are correct and I hope that's the case where I get off easily! I will be adjusting the RF tomorrow morning through the front corrector. This camera hasn't been opened, it doesn't look like it's been dropped, and it looks to be in good shape.
 
msarkki said:
Just one more thing to doublecheck. Did you have the front plate removed? If I recall correctly the small upper screws (2+2) near rangefinder and finder windows are of different length. If by accident longer screws are fitted to the rangefinder window side it prevents at least focusing to infinity. Helicoid will move, but the coinciding image stops moving before helicoid reaches the infinity marker.
Click to expand...

Hi and thanks for mentioning it. I did notice that the rangefinder side screws are shorter in length, and I was careful and made sure to reassemble back the same way.
 
armphoto said:
You are correct and I hope that's the case where I get off easily! I will be adjusting the RF tomorrow morning through the front corrector. This camera hasn't been opened, it doesn't look like it's been dropped, and it looks to be in good shape.
Click to expand...

Well, it turns out the front corrector didn't do the trick, so I'll need to disassemble almost the whole camera to just adjust the RF! I don't have to precision tools to do that yet, but I'd like to do it given the right tools. Where do you guys order such tools like small screwdrivers, spanner tools, etc.? And what do I need? I have screw sizes from 1.4 mm to 3.00 mm but their tips are thick, but the screws on FSU cams have such narrow grooves that I don't want to take the chance and damage them.
Thanks
 
Use a fine file to thin them, use a green scrubby dishwashing pad to remove the sharp edges from the file. Eyeball them with a magnifying glass.
 
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