Kiev 4AM and yak hair light seals

[Pfreddee]

I have a Kiev 4AM, which may be suffering from a light leak in the groove where the back and case join. I have read that the original material used to seal this part was yak hair(!!??!). What would work as an acceptable replacement for yak hair? I've thought of dark yarn or embroidery floss, or just a strand of plain old garden twine cut to correct length. What have some of you other Kiev-a-holics used to fix this problem?

Thanks to all who reply.

With best regards,

Pfreddee(Stephen)

 

[locheeboy]

Hi Stephen,

Normal camera thread which usually comes in light seal kits (or buy separately) will work just fine. Ah use this on my old Zenits as well as my Fed and Kiev.

Boab 😎

 

[sevo]

The "yak" probably is merely a joke on the rather coarse quality wool they used - the Soviet Union is not part of its natural habitat. Any low grade dark sheep or goat wool yarn will do.

 

[Zorkiiglaza]

The Yak hair is a joke that goes back to the days of getting packages wrapped at Soviet- FSU post offices. (See Kiev Survival Site) Everything was wrapped at the post offices in front of postal officials who then wrapped them in brown paper, the so called yak hair which it wasn't, and the waxed seals. There was always a small pot of hot black sealing wax on hand. The string was probably flax or a mixture of flax and other natural fibers.

 

[Coldkennels]

I just recently serviced my Kiev and found that the light seal string I had lying around was too dense to fit into the tight body seal. I went for a microcell foam instead, cut into thin strips. I've used that on a lot of my other FSU cameras, too. Works a treat. You get get large sheets of it from ebay for next to nothing.

Another thing to bear in mind is that there are a couple of other likely places for leaks in the 4AM. if you remove the top piece of aluminium sat atop the top plate, you'll probably find there's a gap between the hot shoe and the top casting. That was the source of my leaks, and a bit of black electrical tape fixed that up.

 

[ruby.monkey]

Black darning wool works well.

 

[oftheherd]

Black darning wool works well.

That and a little black magic marker to ensure there were no reflections, was what I used to replace the 'Yak' yarn in my 4am. Still works after about 4 years.

 

[Zorkiiglaza]

Here is the link to light seals from the Kiev Survival site
http://www3.telus.net/public/rpnchbck/fixing light leaks.html

 

[hidejoshi]

I use black foam, from old mousepad ,cut with sharp blade on to thin strip.