R
ruben
Guest
Hi MSch,
Upon you calling me a "Kiev expert", I find it opportune to publicly give my round idea about what Kiev expertize involves, and what are the areas in which I can claim experience.
In very broad lines I think Kiev knowledge can be divided in 5 areas, which I will pinpoint from easy to harder:
1) Daily efficient use of the cameras and lenses.
Here I have spent some 5 years in finding the best ways to use all available parts of the Kiev system, a system which may appear as cumbersome from first glance. Trying to avoid the cumbersome side and trying to find efficient manipulation. Perhaps it should be included here, or in the next item, lens quality testing for sharpness.
2) Kiev dissasembly and CLA.
This is the basic technical stage, enabling you to transform a stiff and unaccurate camera into a sweety and precision one. I think I know this stage.
It includes cleaning and lubing, as well as shutter distension and adjustment, ribbons replacement, rangefinding adjusting, light leaks fixing. It also includes solving frame spacing issues - this latter one still under study by me. Perhaps I should include here black painting.
3) Lens disassembly and maintenance.
Here my experience is very poor. There is a lot of info at the Kiev Survival Site.
4) Shutter synchronization.
Once you disassemble a Kiev, you should take care of doing it while the shutter is cocked, and perhaps at the 250 speed. Otherwise you may dis-synchronize the shutter components by accident, meaning you may create a situation in which the shutter mechanism is stacked due to disharmony of its elements.
I do have in my possesion a written document with pics, explaining how to re-synchronize all those parts back. But after a first glance, I never started to really studying this, as it seemed to need a huge investment of time, I can avoid by taking care at the stage of disassembly.
5) Kiev disassembly to the full.
By this I mean the absolute disassembly of all gears. This work is performend by a great Contax repairman, and I do not know it at all.
===========
There is another word I would like to say about Kiev learning.
In principle I am not at all a technically minded person, nor one of easy or quick technical grasping. And being a smoker at my age, certainly doesn't add to the stability of my hands, very much required for the screwing and unscrewing job - which is the one taking most of the time.
This is why I consider many of my fellow friends may be wrong in their fear of opening Kievs. With persistance and patience a non-technical mind can reach the second level, upon which you will feel your camera is worth of several hundred dollars and not easy replaceable by another brand.
On the other hand, we all have seen at RFF FSU subforum several youngers whom Kiev disassembly is rather a kid's play.
Either way, learn stage 2 and you will change your vision of the RF world. In its potential, the Kiev system may bring you to the forefront line of the amateur cathegory, in a very economic way, relatively to the high class results you may obtain. But you have to learn how to transform this potential into actual reality.
Otherwise you may find yourself at this line:
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52150
Cheers,
Ruben
Upon you calling me a "Kiev expert", I find it opportune to publicly give my round idea about what Kiev expertize involves, and what are the areas in which I can claim experience.
In very broad lines I think Kiev knowledge can be divided in 5 areas, which I will pinpoint from easy to harder:
1) Daily efficient use of the cameras and lenses.
Here I have spent some 5 years in finding the best ways to use all available parts of the Kiev system, a system which may appear as cumbersome from first glance. Trying to avoid the cumbersome side and trying to find efficient manipulation. Perhaps it should be included here, or in the next item, lens quality testing for sharpness.
2) Kiev dissasembly and CLA.
This is the basic technical stage, enabling you to transform a stiff and unaccurate camera into a sweety and precision one. I think I know this stage.
It includes cleaning and lubing, as well as shutter distension and adjustment, ribbons replacement, rangefinding adjusting, light leaks fixing. It also includes solving frame spacing issues - this latter one still under study by me. Perhaps I should include here black painting.
3) Lens disassembly and maintenance.
Here my experience is very poor. There is a lot of info at the Kiev Survival Site.
4) Shutter synchronization.
Once you disassemble a Kiev, you should take care of doing it while the shutter is cocked, and perhaps at the 250 speed. Otherwise you may dis-synchronize the shutter components by accident, meaning you may create a situation in which the shutter mechanism is stacked due to disharmony of its elements.
I do have in my possesion a written document with pics, explaining how to re-synchronize all those parts back. But after a first glance, I never started to really studying this, as it seemed to need a huge investment of time, I can avoid by taking care at the stage of disassembly.
5) Kiev disassembly to the full.
By this I mean the absolute disassembly of all gears. This work is performend by a great Contax repairman, and I do not know it at all.
===========
There is another word I would like to say about Kiev learning.
In principle I am not at all a technically minded person, nor one of easy or quick technical grasping. And being a smoker at my age, certainly doesn't add to the stability of my hands, very much required for the screwing and unscrewing job - which is the one taking most of the time.
This is why I consider many of my fellow friends may be wrong in their fear of opening Kievs. With persistance and patience a non-technical mind can reach the second level, upon which you will feel your camera is worth of several hundred dollars and not easy replaceable by another brand.
On the other hand, we all have seen at RFF FSU subforum several youngers whom Kiev disassembly is rather a kid's play.
Either way, learn stage 2 and you will change your vision of the RF world. In its potential, the Kiev system may bring you to the forefront line of the amateur cathegory, in a very economic way, relatively to the high class results you may obtain. But you have to learn how to transform this potential into actual reality.
Otherwise you may find yourself at this line:
http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52150
Cheers,
Ruben
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