Kiev 4am rangefinder alignment

[lido]

Hello all,

I am new to the forum and wanted to see if any of you guys are experiencing the same issue with Kiev 4am rangefinder.

I find that there is a shift in focus from left to right side of the rangefinder patch, i.e. if the left side is aligned, the right is not and vice versa. I just got the camera couple of days ago and ran one roll of film through it. Once I developed it, I noticed that the focus was just in front of the main subject. I used the right side of the range finder patch for focusing.

Any idea what might be causing this and how to fix it? Thanks in advance.

 

[jaypolaski]

They reccomend when focusing on a subject, line up the center, not one of the edges, as there is a spatial difference between the center of the subject, and the center, which is usually closer than the edges... beyond that, your rangefinder may be out of alignment...instructions for fixing it can be found here:

http://www3.telus.net/public/kaylalyn/index.html

Bookmark this site, it's a GODSEND!!!

 

[lido]

Thanks for the info, I'll try to run another roll of film through it and see what happens. Read the rangefinder adjustment info on the site you mentioned, looks pretty involved. Don't think I'll be getting into that kind of stuff just yet 😉

Cheers.

 

[jaypolaski]

I do get that problem with focusing anything closer than 2 meters, which seems to be the norm with the Kiev, (I have a 4A)

 

[hugivza]

Thanks for the tip on the site - my first Kiev is in the mail from Siberia (Seregy assures me that he posted it a month ago). I have had a similar problem with the alignment on my Contax IIIA - the rf images are separated by a few mm, and I have been using an old external Leica rangefinder in lieu.