Kiev-4 lightleaks

[Joao]

Hello
Some nasty lightleaks surprised me after developing a roll of Fujicolor 100 from a Kiev-4. No light outside the frames or on the sprocket area. Most of the pictures showed no leaks at all. Very bright sun, but lightleaks seemed not related to the position of the sun in relation with the camera.
Advice needed concerning diagnosis & treatment.
Thanks in advance

[TVphotog]

Have you had the top off yet? Ruben can point you right to the areas, but I believe that it is around the rangefinder area. I haven't had one apart or put one back together in a while. Usually, that is where the light leaks like these come from.

Straight from the KSS

http://www3.telus.net/public/rpnchbck/fixing%20light%20leaks.html

[Peter_Jones]

Yes, that's the area. They are factory-fitted with a small (too small) piece of black card which often goes awol. With the top off, and the paper removed, you can look straight at the film plane from above the shutter area :eek: this needs blanking off properly. I have used photographic paper bags that minilab paper rolls come in (scrounged from photo lab). Use plenty, and a bit of black tape if needed also.

Hopefully that'll cure it :)

[Mark Wood]

Given the orange colouration in the fogging (and I assume it's colour negative film?), the light is coming from behind the film which I suspect reduces the likelihood of it coming from the rangefinder area. (Light from that area usually seems to creep in through the sprocket drive and fog the front of the film.) My first suspicion would be the string seal in the slot that holds the back in place which can easily be replaced with one of Jon Goodman's pre-cut strips. (This was the cause of a very similar looking leak I had in a 1970s Kiev 4a.)

[newspaperguy]

I'd vote for the guilty sprocket cure - see pix 9, 10 & 11 on the KSS

[acheyj]

If you are lucky its the string seal, easy to fix and nothing to lose. Will at least remove one variable, then its onto the top strip down. Really not that hard to do.

good luck

ron

[Mark Wood]

Firstly, I'd lay the negative strip across the film plane and line a frame up with the shutter aperture to see where the clearly defined straight edge of the fogging pattern lines up with the body castings. (The fogging is very unlikely to be occurring when the film is across the shutter aperture, so make sure that the fogged frame is either in the take-up spool side or the supply cassette side when you do this.) That way, you should be able to get a reasonable idea of the place where the light is getting in. As there's no obvious pattern in the fogging from the roller on the film supply side, the take-up side looks guilty (as it usually seems to be).

The Kiev Survival site really is your friend for all of this. After several years, I've found that a persistent light leak on the emulsion side of the film in the sprocket area in one Kiev 4a really was coming from the light trapping behind the rangefinder prism as Russ's article suggested. On shining a torch through the rangefinder window in a darkroom, a faint glow was appearing from the small slot in the top of the sprocket drive. I wish I'd seen his wqeb site several years ago...

[ruben]

...Straight from the KSS

http://www3.telus.net/public/rpnchbck/fixing%20light%20leaks.html


Hi Joao,

I do have a specific suspiction about where your light streaks come from, but it doesn't matter. Whenever one has a light streak he should correct and check all sources and all corrections, which are well covered at the KSS site.

Follow the KSS very closely. The KSS post is not too severe, but on the contrary, a bit too forgiving. Therefore, follow its instructions to the fullest possible extension).

Special attention to the following KSS steps. Notice that at the third pic I have added a red felt circle. When you put back the top casting structure there will be a slight gap at this place. We have to mask tape this gap:

[Joao]

Thank you all for the very informative input.
Placing new seals will be the immediate step, and I guess that light-sealing those crucial spots under the top will also be whithin my possibilities.
Best regards
Joao

[bolas]

From time to time i also have problems with leaking ranefinder so the simplest solution i managed is just to cover rangefidner window with a finger just before you push the trigger :) It's not really pro solution but it works ;) !