Kiev 88 SLR Medium Format Camera
Photo courtesy of Yuri Boguslavsky
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Kiev 88 Medium Format SLR Camera
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see links at above URL for Kiev related manuals and information
These directions are for the "standard" Kiev 88 magazine, NOT the newer NT magazines, which hinge open. If these directions are followed carefully, you will avoid frame spacing problems: overlapping frames, and also too widely spaced frames, which can result in losing a portion of the last negative on the roll. The above assumes there are no mechanical problems with either the magazine, or camera body. 1: Make sure that the color coded cocking indicator windows located on the right side of the magazine and body show WHITE indicating that both the camera and magazine are COCKED. 2: The frame counter window on the magazine should show NO number- it should be black. If it is not, cock and fire the shutter until NO NUMBER appears. This is the starting point�this is important. 3: Lift the roll holder lock on the left end of the magazine, and turn it conter-clockwise as far as it will go. Pull the roll holder out of the magazine housing. 4:Insert a roll of film into the feed position, and pull out a couple of inches of leader, making sure that the colored side of the leader is against the pressure plate, and the black side is facing away, or toward you, and the edge of the paper is under the chrome lip at the edge of the pressure plate. Put the end of the leader into the slot of the takeup spool, and turning it towards you, wind 2-3 turns of paper around the spool, MAKING SURE that the paper is feeding on STRAIGHT- not overlapping, or crumpling against the end of the spool, and is TIGHTLY WRAPPED. 5: Keeping the paper tight, pull a bit more paper off the feed roll until the spool can be installed in the takeup position. The knurled knob can be turned to help the film drive keys seat into the slots in the end of the spool. The roll holder is now ready for reinstallation into the magazine housing. 6: Holding the roll holder lock in the full counter-clockwise position, insert the roll holder into the housing. If the roll holder will not seat completely, lift one of the wings of the film winding key located on the opposite end of the housing, and turn it a click or two, until the roll holder slides fully home. The roll holder lock must be held fully counterclockwise, or the holder will not seat. Turn the roll holder lock fully clockwise, and fold the key down to lock it. Reinsert the dark slide, making sure that the rolled portion of the slide that retains the handle faces the lens. 7: Open the viewing window located on the back of the magazine housing. You should see the colored side of the paper leader. Lift one wing of the winding key, if you not already done so, and turn it CLOCKWISE until the number 1 is centered in the viewing window. This takes a while, so be patient. Close the viewing window cover, and then turn the film winding key COUNTER-CLOCKWISE as far as it will go, to reset the film counter to the number 1. This last step is VERY important. 8: The magazine is now ready to be installed on the camera, and the dark slide removed, which readies the camera for the first exposure. When you have made the final exposure on the roll, recock the shutter, which readies the magazine for reloading. 9: To unload the exposed film from the magazine, open the viewing window on the back of the magazine, lift one wing of the winding key on the right end of the magazine, and turn it CLOCKWISE until you cannot see any more of the backing paper through the window. The roll holder can now be removed from the magazine housing as noted in item 3 above, and the roll removed and sealed. Note: As the film advances, the numbers on the film backing paper will no longer line up if viewed through the viewing window on the back of the magazine. It is not necessary that they do so, as the mechanism of the magazine controls how far the film is advanced. If frame spacing is still too small or too wide after following these instruction, the magazine will require adjustment by an experienced camera repairman. VER 1.1 11/11/99 K.K.
[Ed. note: some compliments to Kevin for his tips...]
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2000
From: Sergio Ramirez [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Subject: Kiev cameras, Kiev lenses and Mamiya 645 lenses
Hi Robert:
First, I wanted to thank you for maintaining your excellent medium
format pages. I have used many times to find information about my hobby
(medium format).
Until now, I had nothing to contribute, but now I believe I should
share the following two experiences with your readers.
The first, is related to the kiev 88 film magazine loading. I have
always complained about the uneven spacing in the magazines. Some of the
magazines I owned separated the frames too much which led getting only
eleven photos on a 120 roll of film. Other magazines had the opposite
problem (two little spacing) which led to loosing shoots because of frame
overlap. That situation stayed until one day I read the article by Kevin
Kalsbeek at your site on how to properly load the kiev 88 magazines.
http://www.smu.edu/~rmonagha/mf/kiev88back.html
Since then, I haven't had a problem at all with any of the magazines I
own. In fact the magazine is so precise that I consistently get thirteen
exposures per 120 film. Later I read more carefully the manual provided by
the Arsenal Factory and I found out that the instructions there are also
clear, I guess many people which complain about the Kiev 88 magazine have
the same problem that I had, essentially that we do not follow
instructions.
On the dissapointing side, I did send two of my magazines (I own four) to
Kiev USA for "fixing" and they charged me $100.00 for probably doing
nothing to the magazines since I believe they were in working order. Given
that experience,and a couple of other bad experiences with them, I
wouldn't recomend dealing with Kiev USA to your readers.
The second experience is with the Kiev 88 lenses, I recently did a
series of photos with my Kiev 88 camera with a 80mm Arsat lens, and I also
shot the same scenes with a Mamiya 645 camera with a 80mm f2.8N lens, the
same day, the same film, under the same lighting and exposure conditions.
To my surprise, the corner resolution of the Kiev lens is far better than
the Mamiya lens and the center resolution is the same or the difference is
unnoticeable under a 10x magnification loupe. In one scene, there is a
structure which has very fine lines which you can really distinguish in
the photo taken by the Kiev lens but not in the photo taken with the
Mamiya lens (it seems like the Mamiya lens has some astigmatism).
I went and checked the results that Popular photography had
published about both lenses, and in their tests Pop Photo reports better
center resolution of the Mamiya lens but comparable edge resolution for
the Arsat lens. What struck me is the interpretation of the results, at
some apertures the corner resolution for the Kiev lens is better than the
Mamiya lens however the Kiev lens result is reported as good while the
Mamiya is reported as excellent. This made me conclude that Pop Photo and
probably other magazines tend to report more optimistically and be more
enthusiastic about products which have high advertising budgets (such as
Mamiya) while other companies, which might provide good products but have
not big pockets are judged very harshly. I guess from now on, I will read
these test reports very carefully and, most important, arrive to my own
conclusions.
I wish there was a web site where the modulation transfer
functions for each available lens were available in graphic form as well
as raw data so that one could make a comparative plot between various
lenses. I wish I could do it with the lenses I own or I have access to but
unfortunately I neither know how to perform these tests (I know how to
interpret results but that is different) or have the necessary equipment
if I knew how to.
Ok, that is all for now. Please keep with the good work. Thanks
again and regards
Sergio Ramirez