Last January I bought a Kiev 4a, a '59. Before I bought one, I read all I could find about the various versions and the various problems they come with lightleaks being a popular one. Mine had no lightleaks.
I recently had the top casting and front trim plate off to clean the viewfinder, while I had the top off I put the back on the body for safety in handling it. I noticed that with the yak hair yarn removed, the top edge of the back fit very closely in the recess, which started a train of thought - My Contax II had no yarn in the recess, and the Kiev didn't appear to need it either. So, I scraped all the glue off and painted the recess black. I then readjusted the latches by moving shims from the inside to the outside so the baseplate of the back was held snugly against the bottom of the body casting and the top edge of the back was pressed fully into the recess. Result - the back now fits solidly, there is no gap between the baseplate front and the lower edge of the body casting/front trim plate, the bead at the top of the back fits snugly against the lower edge of the top casting (in other words, the back fits as if it were a Contax) and there are still no lightleaks. The piece of yarn below the viewfinder eyepiece was left in place, this is a potential problem spot.
I checked for leaks by shining a very bright LED flashlight around the seams from every angle using the first frame of a roll of 400 speed film.
As a further note, this camera has a very complex set of thin sheetmetal baffles around the film sprocket, at the top of the sprocket, and behind the RF window, as well as some black paper baffles next to the counter dial area. This is about what I remember being present in my Contax, which had no issues with the darkness dribbling away either.
I thought I'd share this in case anyone out there is tinkering with one of these.
I recently had the top casting and front trim plate off to clean the viewfinder, while I had the top off I put the back on the body for safety in handling it. I noticed that with the yak hair yarn removed, the top edge of the back fit very closely in the recess, which started a train of thought - My Contax II had no yarn in the recess, and the Kiev didn't appear to need it either. So, I scraped all the glue off and painted the recess black. I then readjusted the latches by moving shims from the inside to the outside so the baseplate of the back was held snugly against the bottom of the body casting and the top edge of the back was pressed fully into the recess. Result - the back now fits solidly, there is no gap between the baseplate front and the lower edge of the body casting/front trim plate, the bead at the top of the back fits snugly against the lower edge of the top casting (in other words, the back fits as if it were a Contax) and there are still no lightleaks. The piece of yarn below the viewfinder eyepiece was left in place, this is a potential problem spot.
I checked for leaks by shining a very bright LED flashlight around the seams from every angle using the first frame of a roll of 400 speed film.
As a further note, this camera has a very complex set of thin sheetmetal baffles around the film sprocket, at the top of the sprocket, and behind the RF window, as well as some black paper baffles next to the counter dial area. This is about what I remember being present in my Contax, which had no issues with the darkness dribbling away either.
I thought I'd share this in case anyone out there is tinkering with one of these.
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