Shutter speeds on my Kiev are way off

P

Peter Worley

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Dec 17, 2013
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Hello everyone, I was just wondering if anyone else has a similar problem to me with their Kiev-4. I recently bought a PHOTOPLUG and immediately got down to the laborious task of checking all my shutter speeds on my film cameras. I knew they wouldn't be perfect but the Kiev stood out particularly as the speeds are almost all pretty much halved, here is a list:

1/2 = 1/1.1
1/5 = 1/2.2
1/10 = 1/4.6
1/25 = 1/14
1/50 = 1/25
1/125 = 1/76
1/250 = 1/100
1/500 = 1/135
1/1250 = 1/240

Thanks.
 
No surprise. A LOT of elderly cameras are like that, and elderly Soviet cameras with dubious lubricants, wobbly quality control, and no exercise in decades are unlikely to be among the best. Old Pentax SVs (I have two) are not a lot better, except perhaps at 1/500 and 1/1000.

If you're shooting neg film, how much does it matter? Even the (joke) 1/1250, which was probably 1/1000 at best when it was new, is only a bit more than 2 stops over.

Cheers,

R.
 
A camera whose speeds are that predictably off is not quite as bad as could be. Indeed, having it fixed could end with a camera with a less predictable irregularity within a few years - not all repairs age as gently as that camera did...
 
a stop off on all speeds...sounds like something in the shutter speed selection mechanism has been incorrectly assembled.
 
Most Kievs never get a CLA, few people are willing to spend the cost on a camera of such low value. However, I'd say yours must have a serious problem. It does not surprise me that the speeds are slow, what surprises me is that they are that far off. Your half-second is almost a full second, something I'd be very aware of if mine were so bad.
 
Peter Worley said:
Hello everyone, I was just wondering if anyone else has a similar problem to me with their Kiev-4. I recently bought a PHOTOPLUG and immediately got down to the laborious task of checking all my shutter speeds on my film cameras. I knew they wouldn't be perfect but the Kiev stood out particularly as the speeds are almost all pretty much halved, here is a list:

1/2 = 1/1.1
1/5 = 1/2.2
1/10 = 1/4.6
1/25 = 1/14
1/50 = 1/25
1/125 = 1/76
1/250 = 1/100
1/500 = 1/135
1/1250 = 1/240

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I found the photo-plug tester is only accurate up to 1/60 or 1/125 (can't quite remember) on a focal plane shutter,but maybe that was just me.
 
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