Kiev madness?

Stephen L

Stephen L

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In a senior moment I clicked the mouse and purchased a Kiev 4 (1978 vintage) with 50mm Jupiter lens, allegedly fully tested including the meter. It should arrive later this week. Any peculiarities I should bear in mind when using the thing?
 
I know that one of the Soviet rangefinders needs to be adjusted and wound on in a particular order but can't remember which brand or what order!
 
Check the shutter on B and 1/30 that there is no signs of a slow or sticking curtain.
Check the view finder rangefinder image to make sure it lines up vertically, that the distance on the lens is roughly the distance to the subject.

Check the light meter is roughly right

Yes, Nod is correct, you have to cock the shutter before setting the speed, and don't turn the speed between 1000 (500) and the slow speeds, go all the way back around.

1/30th is likely to be about 1/40, and the fastest speeds are likely to be about half what they read.
 
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Stephen L said:
In a senior moment I clicked the mouse and purchased a Kiev 4 (1978 vintage) with 50mm Jupiter lens, allegedly fully tested including the meter. It should arrive later this week. Any peculiarities I should bear in mind when using the thing?
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Looks very nice. I hope you enjoy it.

Don't forget to post your impressions when you get it.

PS.
I've just had a look and the ones on evil bay look to be in good condition,
 
Sangoma said:
Yes, Nod is correct, you have to cock the shutter before setting the speed, and don't turn the speed between 1000 (500) and the slow speeds, go all the way back around.
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Is there an easy way to rectify the situation should the shutter speed be adjusted before the shutter's cocked? I inherited one from the FiL and it seems to be stuck somewhere! TBH, I'm not sure where it is now but if I find it (and it is recoverable), I can see a few uses for it.
 
Nod said:
Is there an easy way to rectify the situation should the shutter speed be adjusted before the shutter's cocked? I inherited one from the FiL and it seems to be stuck somewhere! TBH, I'm not sure where it is now but if I find it (and it is recoverable), I can see a few uses for it.
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It would depend if anything is bent or broken.

If nothing is damaged, it should carry on working fine, I'm sure I have done it many times :) I have quite a few Zenits, Zorkis and FEDs

If it is not working properly, it could well be for another reason, such as just age (they all lose their accuracy, for a variety of reasons)

My daughter had a Voigtlander jam on her yesterday, I just pushed the re-wind button to disengage the winding gears and all was fine. You don't get that on digital!

By far the most common fault is a stuck/slow second curtain, which sometimes can be corrected by re-tensioning the take up spring.
Probably the second most common major fault is you open the back and see at least one of the curtains is folded/twisted up in the camera. It is usually not broken, but come unglued. I would guess it would cost 1 1/2 hours labour to fix, not worth it when you can get another one for £20 upwards :) However, it is not hard to do for someone reasonably competent and patient. The thought of taking the shutter unit apart and rebuilding it is worse than actually doing it though
The SLRs have an additional issue that helps slow the shutter, the mirror is lifted through the shutter unit.

Search for it, there is plenty of info, and guides, it is much easier now than it was 40 years ago :)
 
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Stephen L said:
That would be very useful, thank you. :)
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I can't attach it here.
It is a scanned copy of the original, cleaned up and converted to PDF.
I also have it 2 up, then you can get it printed in A5 booklet form (A4 folded) and then cut it in half and you will have two copies for the price of printing one :)
 
My apologies, some of my comments are not valid, somehow I saw it as a FED 4 :(
The Kiev 4 uses a different shutter to most of the other similar Russian cameras. (its not really of Russian origin)

It can be set before cocking, but advise is not to.

It has a vertical shutter, and I have never stripped one down, sorry for any confusion.
 
Sangoma said:
The Kiev 4 uses a different shutter to most of the other similar Russian cameras. (its not really of Russian origin)
Click to expand...
The Kiev range started life as the pre-war Zeiss Contax II and III.

After the Soviets grabbed Jena, they took the entire production line, plans and materials for the Contax range as part of the war reparations and moved them to Kyiv - hence the new name for the camera. Over several decades, the Soviet factory made various changes, some good and some not so good, to the original design. The 4 (with exposure meter) and 4a (without meter) are probably the best of the later models. I've owned two and they're surprisingly good for such cheap cameras, a good specimen of the standard Jupiter 8 (50mm f2) being as capable as most other 50mm lenses, in my opinion

Kiev camera in ERC GH2 P1320261.JPG
 
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AndrewFlannigan said:
The Kiev range started life as the pre-war Zeiss Contax II and III.

After the Soviets grabbed Jena, they took the entire production line, plans and materials for the Contax range as part of the war reparations and moved them to Kyiv - hence the new name for the camera. Over several decades, the Soviet factory made various changes, some good and some not so good, to the original design. The 4 (with exposure meter) and 4a (without meter) are probably the best of the later models. I've owned two and they're surprisingly good for such cheap cameras, a good specimen of the standard Jupiter 8 (50mm f2) being as capable as most other 50mm lenses, in my opinion

View attachment 388783
Click to expand...
That’s the one I’m getting (Mine has been reskinned in red crocodile!) The lens apparently has some haze (not fungus) on the rear element, but I can easily get another one. In fact, there’s an excellent example for sale at West Yorkshire Cameras which I might snaffle.
 
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