kiev light meter refurb

[fidget]

I quite like the look of the Kiev 4, but it would be really nice if the light meter worked and was reliable (and accurate). I have a couple which I don't use and can experiment on, so I will have a look into what can be done to refurb one of these but would like to see what might have been done already. Has anyone tried this or do you know of a site/thread which details the work done by others?

Dave....

 

[Santafecino]

Fidget--
I've wondered. Look at Oleg's site. He offers new meter cells. So--he must fix the meters, right?
--Santefecino

 

[Jocko]

I had a Kiev 4M with an extremely lively but hopelessly inaccurate and unusable meter. Steve Ash identified the problem but lacked the parts. Oleg had them and installed them. Now I have a lively but hopelessly inaccurate and unusable meter with new parts (let me add that I also had a superb Kiev whose meter was spot on... but that got stolen).

My feeling is that it might be worthwile to contemplete doing what the Soviets intended to do and build your own Kiev 7 - http://www.dvdtechcameras.com/collect/arsenal/arsenal.htm (follow link in menu on left of page!) - perhaps replacing the selenium with one of those calculator cells. If I had any skill whatsoever I would try, poor deluded fool that I am 🙁

Cheers, Ian

 

[Xmas]

Dave

The meters will work well, even from '53, and are good enough to be usable with chrome. The only problem I have with working ones are the angle of acceptance is so large that you need to point down (or grey card) to reduce sky effects. I have not tried to cannablise my broken ones yet although I have sufficient test gear, multimeter, soldering iron etc.

The galvo suspension is exposed to shock damage, the potentiometer could wear with use, the cell contacts corrode and the cell material get moisture ingress.

Ru kitchen top maintenance people can/could destroy. Ruben confessed to damaging his by accident.

Russ the Canuk does not have a how to fix the meter page...

Do you have a multi meter?

Noel

 

[wolves3012]

I quite like the look of the Kiev 4, but it would be really nice if the light meter worked and was reliable (and accurate). I have a couple which I don't use and can experiment on, so I will have a look into what can be done to refurb one of these but would like to see what might have been done already. Has anyone tried this or do you know of a site/thread which details the work done by others?

Dave....

I've replaced the cell in mine with one I found in my "bits" box (electronic parts). It's only a fraction of the size of the original and I had to find a series resistor to reduce the readings but it works. Saying that, I did it more as an exercise since I'd never trust these meters!

 

[fidget]

I just fancy a look at the problem. The output of the cell is so low that the average multimeter may not read it. Test gear etc is no problem, just finding a cell that could be made to fit the spec with a few extra resistors would be a good start. As you say, many may not work due to other problems in the meter and pot. The one I had been playing with has just died, exit one meter? Run out of time for now, so it's something I can come back to.

 

[Xmas]

Dave

We need a schematic of the circuit?

The cell may be ok the lead contacts may be high resistance?

But you are ahead of me on time you have just done a light leak...

Noel

 

[rolleistef]

Wow what's this Kiev 7?? Was it really made and marketed or is it a DIY camera with new parts and a hinged back??

 

[darkkavenger]

I never knew about such a model, it looks odd & interesting 🙂

 

[fidget]

Dave

We need a schematic of the circuit?

The cell may be ok the lead contacts may be high resistance?

But you are ahead of me on time you have just done a light leak...

Noel

Noel, I think that I damaged my meters hair spring, chalk another one up to me!
Before I started this attempt, I checked that the light meter did have a nice response to light, and that the pot gave a smooth change, so that everything was basically fine.
I looked at my 79 kiev 4, the circuit schematic is as attached (rough drawing). The resistor R1 is the resistance of the meter and may not exist as an actual component. The pot doubles it's resistance for each stop opened on the dial and max'es out at 16k. The circuit is a bit agricultural to say the least, it depends on loading the single cell to achieve it's variation. This is a problem for a modern multi-cell device such as those found on calculators.
I hadn't though of how it would operate if it were working perfectly. From what has been posted here, I guess that it may still be lacking.
Anyway, I've now got a small cache of solar cells, so I may open Kiev No2 and try again (more carefully).
Dave....

 

[Xmas]

Dave

Thanks for info...
Sorry for your disaster, your par figure is similar to mine
Did you hide the attachment?
One meter fail mechanism is that the post can jump out of the suspension, it is possible to put this back, if that is what you did.
If you think the cell on the 1st one might be ok you coud try a swap as most of mine are ok on their original configurations, more than I can say for my Weston's which are all younger, only 2 out off five of these work, cheaper buying another than fixing, ... (only two out of my eight Kiev's dont work to spec,)...

Noel

 

[fidget]

Ah, I forgot to attach the image, now corrected.

 

[Xmas]

Dave

Ta, I'll try and make some time this weekend.

Noel