CLA a working Kiev only for smoother operation?

[Philipp]

My Kiev 4a is from 1979. Just ran my first roll through it. No light-leaks. Rangefinder is spot-on. Looks like the shutter speeds are okay as well. But things like film advance or select the shutter speed are much smoother on my CLA'ed Zorki 1 from 1955 (Oleg did his job really well). What do you think: send it in for an CLA although the camera works? How smooth can the operations with a CLAed Kiev become? Worth the money?

Okay, not a REAL problem, but we all love our FSU gear...

Philipp

[Stu W]

In my experience better but never as smooth as the Zorki.

[ErnestoJL]

The reason why the Kiev isn´t that smooth is because the camera carries the same complex mechanism of the Contax. In the Contax/Kiev the rotation axle of the winding knob is 90 deg. apart from the curtains. This forces to use several teethed wheels to transmit movement, so friction is increased. The Leica shutter instead is simpler as the curtain rollers as well as film winding has paralell axles and less points where friction developes.

CLA will reduce friction and make winding smoother, but never to the point of smoothness of a Leica or Zorki.

Cheers

Ernesto

[ruben]

Sometimes it seems to me there is not clear end about how soft the winding knob my turn.

But there is a practical barrier for me, that perhaps you will like to coin. Shoot some twenty shots, one after the other (with some patience), while the camera is at eyelevel (and at this position your arm and fingers are weaker).
In case you find no special problem, then for all practical purposes your camera is very much ok.

Now, there is something else, very very easy you can do yourself to help the smoothness of the winding. It is in the re-wind knob. Without film, your re-wind knob should turn as free as in any other and modern camera. Because if not, as in many Kievs, you will be paying this additional and unnecessary tax each time you wind.

The re-wind compound is easy to disassemble both from top and bottom, then clean with alcohol and lube with a tiny bit of oil. A tiny bit !

Cheers,
Ruben

[nikonhswebmaster]

Rubin, i would never put oil in a camera it is just not tenacious enough to stay where you put it. Always use light grease. Modern light camera greases will not thicken, even in the cold.

[Philipp]

Thank you for your replies! I guess my Kiev is all right and will never get so smooth as the Zorki 1. After all, it is the more complex and advanced camera.

Ruben: the rewind-knob turns very smoothly. But thanks for your advice. Thanks to you the buttom-lock lever is again hold in position!

I guess it is a good thing that my Kiev shows many signs of use. It tells my it worked for the last 30 years and will probably not fail me now.

Greetings,
Philipp

[ruben]

Rubin, i would never put oil in a camera it is just not tenacious enough to stay where you put it. Always use light grease. Modern light camera greases will not thicken, even in the cold.


Henry Scherer himself states in his website that he lubes with 3 different types of grease + 2 different types of oil, according to the part.

Upon my own experience, severe cleaning comes first and the type of lubing is of very secondary importance, if kept in very small ammounts. This is not for cameras in general but for Kievs in particular, the model 4am being an exception, since it gears require greater amounts of lubricant, in whose case oil will not make sense, but grease for most of its parts.

Cheers,
Ruben

[Philipp]

Also in my expirience the cleaning is more important than the new lubrication itself. Got some LTM lenses which wouldn't turn smoothly. Before completely take them apart I just scratched all the old "lubricant" off and turned the focus ring twenty times. Many of the lenses started to move very smoothly just by this. Okay, and the others had to by taken apart and relubed...

BTW: my Kiev has a real problem now. I can't cock the shutter anymore. I can turn the film-advance-knob freely. Any suggestions? Looks like after all it is getting it's CLA by Oleg...

Merry Christmas!
Philipp