Kiev 4AM question

[grifon]

Hi everyone,

My '61 kiev 4AM (as described) but it looks more like kiev 2A (form what i've seen on other websites) arrived yesterday from ukraine. Compared to my Zorki 4, it is a beast, Zorki feels like a tin toy after 🙂

The problem that i'm having with this kiev is... the slow speeds seem a bit odd, especially 5 and slower ( from what i've read, theres two "sets" of slow speeds, one with just one escapement, and second with two) which moves sooo slooow, i can see the shutter curtains crawl down, one after another. Is it a normal Kiev thing? or is something asking to be cleaned?

Also I cant seem to find any websites which would detail the disassembly process of a kiev.

thanks!

PS I think i'll still run a roll through it, just to see if 1250 is there 🙂

 

[Sonnar Brian]

That is normal. They walk across the film. It drove me crazy, but the exposures were good.

 

[darkkavenger]

No worries about this 😉 it's normal! enjoy your Kiev 😀

 

[Stu W]

Even after a cla, the curtains make this wild mechanical noise as they crawl along on the real slow speeds. Bulb is really wild. Before you burn a roll of film, you can get an idea if your exposures are somewhere in the ballpark with a simple method that Rick Oleson describes on his site. You'll never see 1/1250 out of these cameras, maybe 1/800 at best. I find that most of my shooting is done at 1/125 anyway. Stu

 

[darkkavenger]

I'm usually between 1/30 and 1/250 with the Kiev-2A, never had any problems 🙂