Kiev, and the Contax cameras they were patterned after, were great cameras.  Overengineered to give a certain amount of precision that you and your mum would love.  But the complex mechanism, so full of parts and movements, made it prone for more opportunities for failure.  For instance, the shutter.  The metal focal plane shutter used in Kiev had some distinct advantages over the Leica style double cloth type.  It will never burn pinholes.  It will likely to keep its timing better too.  But it had a serious weak point- the shutter run on fibre straps.  Brass slats running, pressing, and bearing on silk ribbons would soon wear the latter out, causing it to break.  Breakage is inevitable- wear, age, and even the climate will eventually kill the ribbons.  And often this breakage happens without warning.  The ribbons aren’t visible, so their state cannot be assessed easily.

It happens quickly too.  One moment the shutter winds and fires ok.  Then suddenly, the winding knob will turn heavier than it did just a few shots ago.  The shutter will fire with a different sound.  The ‘click’ no longer sounds complete- the closing sound that completes the cycle seems to be missing.  All indicators of shutter breakage.  And when you take off the camera’s back, this is what you’ll see- an empty gaping hole where the shutter once was:

The shutter can be wound. But instead of seeing an opening and closing blind, only one set seems to be moving.  Or none at all if the two ribbons broke.

Taking off the shutter cover/film gate plate will reveal what happened.  Expect to find one ribbon- usually the one on the right (next to the large gears), and its break approximately 1 – 3mm from its stitched end.  Sometimes two ribbons break.  Same place too.

In this camera, the two ribbons snapped.  The original material used by the factory – “Арсенал” in the Ukraine- was woven acetate. The two main concerns in ribbon replacement are, 1- the mechanical aspects of repair; and 2- getting the suitable material to replace the broken ribbons.  The latter involves using substitutes such as tailoring or ornamental ribbons, or camera straps from camera repair suppliers.  Many people have reported success with ordinary acetate ribbons.  However, getting one in the right width (3mm) and thickness is not easy.  The wrong size- such as being slightly over 3mm or thicker than what the shutter eyelets can let pass – can result in shutter failure.

The repair can be done without removing anything more than the shutter cover/film gate.  This camera was taken apart more extensively to allow other repairs like Rangefinder calibration.  In Kiev and Contax, the entire shutter assembly has to be removed for simple rangefinder adjustments like vertical or horizontal/infinity alignment.

Closer examination shows that the Ribbons in this shutter failed because of age and wear.

Note and memorise the positions of the original ribbons- where they were attached, and how.  Measure the distance between the folded ends attached to the spring loaded roller at the bottom and the upper shutter blind.  With broken ribbons, this might not be possible.   This is about 11 cms long.

The ribbon material chosen for this repair is a Japanese made material sourced from a camera repair supplier.  It is made of real habutae silk. Not acetate or rayon since the fibres don’t melt and fuse when put to a flame.  It is exactly 3mm wide, just what Kiev or Contax needs.  Real silk is smooth and strong, so it has the strength needed to withstand the shutter’s strain for some years. Silk is one of the strongest natural fibres.  It’s thinner though, but the eyelets on the shutter blinds which ride on the ribbons can be crimped a bit for the grip.

I have read somewhere that the ribbons used by Zeiss for the Contax was made in Japan.  This was before WWII.  The ribbon shown in the picture is described to be suitable for Contax shutters too.  So I added one to the other and tried to see if the ribbon would work. It did.  In my initial test, I actually fired the shutter 200 times.  At around 800, there was no frilling or any signs of deterioration, even when observed at 5X magnification.  Rick Oleson suggested  to me to test a possible material for suitability by firing (the shutter it’s on) at least a hundred times.  This one went through 800 cycles without showing any changes.  Two years later, the Kiev I put it in still works.

(I also used a locally sourced acetate ribbon for some of the Kiev shutters.  This also worked.  But it’s harder to insert it into the numerous shutter parts it has to snake through.  I’m also down to my last 2 metres and I can no longer find the same thing in the tailoring suppliers.)

Cut the ribbon to suitable length.   11 cm is the distance between the shutter blind and the roller, and a bit of extra length is needed for the folded ends.   I cut a small strip of card to serve as the measuring template.  This makes the cutting of this precious material efficient with minimal or no loss.

After cutting, the 10,8 span is marked.  Folds are made on these positions.

The ends of the ribbon strips should be treated with a dopey material like nailpolish or cyanoacrylate glue to seal the ends and make them stiffer for insertion.  The end which will be used for insertion should be tapered a bit.

Once the dope sets, trim to taper one end.  Then bend on the marks.  The folds should be 10.8 – 11 cms apart.  The folds will hook on the roller and the spring blinds at their respective ends.

Insert the ribbons through the rollers, then through the eyelets of the lower shutter blind, and pull out end for attachment to the upper shutter blind.  Make sure that both ribbons have the same length between the roller and the upper shutter blind.

The ribbons need to be glued, and then sewn to keep them in place. Use a figure-8 stitch for all four ends.

Turn the lower roller to reel in the lower shutter curtain and the newly attached ribbons.  The ribbons will wrap around the lower shutter blind.  Use the tensioning screw to turn the lower roller.

Once reeled in, begin tensioning the shutter.  Tensioning is going to be very very fiddly.  The location of the tensioning screw, its size, and the procedure needed can be taxing to your patience and sanity.   On top of that, the camera must be on its side, where there is nothing to keep it in that position.   The tensioning screw is held in place by a locking plate, which in turn is locked by a smaller setscrew.

Once you are able to pass through the hurdle of tensioning the shutter spring properly, you should be able to cock and fire the shutter.   There are actually a lot of parts involved- such as the synch switch actuating lever found on the lower left side (this can detain the lower shutter blind from going up), the catches and the long spring on the lower blind, the curtain separating ramps on the upper part of the film gate, and the large retaining hook on top.

The ribbon should look tight and should pull the lower curtain evenly.  The lower curtain shouldn’t just fall down when the shutter is fired. Instead it should glide on the ribbon downwards.  If it falls too quickly, the eyelets which hold on the ribbons are too loose and need to be crimped a bit.

There is actually more work involved in making the Kiev shutter work properly after the new ribbons are installed.  A lot of procedures in disassembly and reassembly, as well as accessing camera parts have been omitted here.  Such are not discussed in this article.  Refer to the links given above for more information.

Since then, I’ve shot a few ‘tests’ with it, taking it outdoors, and sometimes indoors too.

Then these last two days, I decided to use it for portraits.  The sitters were friends who visited the studio, who gladly agreed to be tortured into sitting for a cumbersome camera.  Getting 3 or 4 shots for each sitter can be considered plenty.  That they too, dug Archaic Photography made the convincing easier.

Instead of film, I used photographic Bromide Paper .  This  is the REAL photographic paper which has a light-sensitive coating, used for traditional black and white “wet” printing in the darkroom.  Sheets were cut into 4X5 in pieces to fit the film holders.  After exposure, the sheets were brought into the darkroom where they were processed in regular paper developing chemistry.  The result is a BW negative on paper:

Exposure was the same as for film, except that lots more, in terms of light or exposure time was needed.  The effective “speed” of paper was less than ISO 10.  That means that even in bright sunny conditions, an exposure of 1/10 sec would be needed at f/16.  Paper is also coated with NON-PANCHROMATIC emulsions- they’re sensitive only to blue and some green, but not to yellow and red.  Thus reds and yellows tend to look dark.  Ruddy skins look so dark that they make the sitters look overly tanned.

The lenses used for most the photos was an INDUSTAR-51 210mm.  This is a Tessar type lens, with a maximum f/4,5 aperture.  It doesn’t have a shutter so the lens cap method was used- cover lens, lift off cap for exposure, count in seconds, and then cap again.  The “slow” photo paper worked quite nicely with the arragement.

The first victim, KARLO.  This one was shot with an Ortagoz 135mm lens.  Some distortion occured because of the short focus distance.  The lens was about 25 cm from Karlo’s face.  Lighting was from afternoon sunlight coming through the windows. The tanned look resulted from the paper’s lack of red sensitivity.

Karlo has used this photo for his school card IDs…:)

The next set involved a different setup. The photos were all shot using the 210mm lens.  This lens was meant to be used with the bigger 5X7 negative.  It behaved like a short telephoto with the smaller 4X5 plate.  Which is quite nice since long lenses do better in portraiture.

(All the exposures where made with OPEN FLASH.  The lens had no shutter, so it was capped to protect the sensitive paper from unwanted exposure,  During exposure, the cap was lifted, the studio strobes fired, and then the lens was capped again. Lighting with studio strobes in softboxes.)

1.BAM

(the Print from the Negative shown above)

2. HARVEY

3. RAIN

4.JEFJAC

Jef moved after focusing and before the exposure can be made, resulting in shifting focus.

AN EASY WAY TO REMOVE CHROME FINISHES ON ZORKI AND FED CAMERAS- MAY ALSO WORK WITH  OTHER CAMERAS

(posted March 2007)

The top plates of the FED and Zorki (at least for the “1″ models) and the bottom plates are differently plated. The top plates have a thinner plating of both chrome and nickel. The bottom/baseplate has these much thicker. The deplating methods described here involve two steps for removing the chrome and nickel layers respectively.

The top plate of FED-1 and Zorki-1 are actually two parts- rangefinder housing and the main plate. The main plate carries most of the camera’s important components- shutter crate, speed controls, film advance, shutter cocking, rewind components, etc. These have to be removed before any treatment can be done.

Once the parts are removed (stripped down to the last screw), the plate is scrubbed clean with a scouring pad, scouring powder, and washed well:

A deplating solution (10-25% sodium hydroxide solution) is prepared. The object to be deplated is attached to the positive terminal of a 12 V car battery. An ordinary wire can be used, and  the solution must be at least 1 metre away from the battery.

A steel object (nails, spoon, etc) is attached to the negative terminal. Once the anode and cathode are in the solution, connect the terminals to the battery. The steel object will fizz and the chromed object will gradually turn yellow. This takes place in just 3 – 5 minutes. 10 minutes should be long enough. In the case of the
top plates, the brass plate will usually show instantly and the second step can be omitted. If after 10 minutes the object still appears ’silver’, the coating seen may be the nickel layer. It will look like the chrome plate, but it is a bit yellow. Make sure that the object is in contact with the solution. Any part touching the plastic parts of the deplating vessel will retain the original plating..

Wash the deplated objects thoroughly in water. The top plates can be dried and set aside for the next steps. If the parts (particularly the base plate) still has nickel, prepare them for the next step. Thorough washing is important since the next step involves an acid solution.

Attach the object to the positive terminal again, as in the previous step. At the negative terminal, attach a lead object, such as roof soldering lead. Removing nickel will take a bit longer. Thicker nickel plating will actually peel off like foil.

The objects in either plating solution will turn brown, light copper, or even green. This is not important. It is critical that the objects do not remain too long in the solution since the brass will be degraded by the lye and acid solutions.

After thorough washing, sand the surfaces to be finished with very, very, very fine sandpaper. Sanding should be lightly done and the surfaces must not be made too smooth. Sand only rough spots left by corrosion. Some roughness is in fact better for repainting since this gives the necessary “bite” for the paint. Or you could polish the surfaces finely and get a temporary ‘gold’ surface which will of course tarnish after a few days.

Camera before treatment:

After, with new Black Finish:

A FINAL NOTE: THE SOLUTIONS BECOME MORE TOXIC AFTER USE SINCE CHROME
AND NICKEL ARE LEFT IN THEM AFTER DEPLATING. YOU MUST CONSULT YOUR
LOCAL AUTHORITIES FOR DETAILS ON TOXIC WASTE DISPOSAL.