Kiev 4am light leaks

[JWalker]

Solved my light leak issue by getting a a self adhesive foam product from a craft store near by! Called Foamies..2mm sticky back sheet stuff that works great! The entire seal on the body was gone and painted over! I bought this Black Repaint 4am from Grizzly33bear on Ebay. He blamed it on shipping problems! The camera works fine and the Helios and my Jupiter 12 seem to be usable.

 

[Valkir1987]

I had the same with a repainted Kiev 4am last christmas, missing the sealing cord. The bottom locks where reassambled in the wrong order as well.
It seems that the paint job was more important than the technical condition of the camera.

Quickly run a roll of film through it! The Helios 103 is a great lens 🙂

 

[Philip Whiteman]

Nice to learn of people getting a result with a late-model Kiev: after several strip-downs and careful positioning of additional/replacement light seals my 4M still leaks light and overlaps the odd frame. As the '39 Contax II I rebuilt and the minty 1953 Kiev 2 I bought online both work so beautifully, the 4 has become a mantelpiece ornament for the time being.

Having compared it with several Jupiter 8s and a couple of f2 Sonnar I can only agree about the Helios 103 - not an object of beauty but a good, sharp working lens.

 

[summar]

My Kiev 4 had leaks everywhere, including below the shutter release. I finally gave up fixing it and got a 4A in good shape from Fedka in NY. I've seen light leaks described as a "special feature" of Kievs.