My 1st total Kiev failure purchase !

dee

dee

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All of my Russian cameras have worked to a degree - sloppy blinds , leaks , stiffness , but the latest 1963 Kiev jammed immediately I tried to change speeds - and I know to wind on before changing !

The dial just goes round and round , not connecting .

i guess it had to happen , but it's probably not worth sending it back - nice case and lense though !!!

However , the finish on this camera IS much better than my late 70s kiev 4 !

That's all I wanted to know really ... maybe a CLA of the 70s and body swap ... I am not THAT crazzeee !

dee
 
Comiserations, Dee, - In the last few minutes I've just been beaten to a nice '55 Kiev 2, on the 'bay (went for £62)-at first I was really p*#sed off, - now I'm not so! - think I'll stick to my super smooth Fed 2 :)

Dave
 
Make sure that the release button isn't locked down. Make sure it's not down and that the two little red dots are lined up. If the release is stuck down, the knob will turn like you describe.

William
 
Thanks , it was locked down , but still seriously not right !

I looked at that ' 55 - with CLA , but went mad on a '51 £140 !!!! - if it's gonna go down , may as well make it BIG TME !!

Just before the 63 jammed !!!

dee
 
£140! You got it bad.

I've had this weird eBay compulsion too, gazing at an auction photo and imagining I'll be happy when it arrives. But remember, there will always be another one. For $280 you could get a Contax. The Kievs are lovely cameras, but sounds like you need to take a deep breath and slow down.

(I know that might be popular on this forum, where we all egg each other on to buy more and more things....)
 
Left the Kiev 4 '63 camera be for a bit - i get too frantic - and fiddled - it's working !
it's even reasonably quiet and easy to wind ... it has what I can only describe as '' patina '' something SLRs post 60s seem not to achieve , and quite different from the coarse chrome of my Oleg '79 ...

My prejudice against the Kiev 4 is fading !
 
63 is a good year for kievs... I have a no name 63 (which is basically a kiev) and it's the smoother user of my big contax shelf...
With a good CLA, you can reach contax standard... silence and precision...

but an excellent J3 is more difficult to find than a nice Sonnar opton of CZ...

Stephan
 
Of my 3 Kiev's (2-61 4a's and a 51 Kiev II) the Kiev II is the best but the other 2 aren't far behind..:D
 
To my very specific ASdee , the Kiev 4 looks '' right '' and was my 1st aquisition from Oleg .[ Because the shape / balance is as my Dad's Praktina ? - wierd , an SLR introducing me to Kiev rangefinder . ]

But i was not as content with the coarse finish . i had no idea that early kiev 4 was so much more like my Kiev 2 and 3 .

i would have no hesitation to have fedka CLA this camera as a user along with my Kiev 2 ... though if the Oleg drifts off somewhat , I doubt I would pay any more out on it .

Interesting ! Not such a dee-saster after all - and it was just £33 al in , so not a fortune .

dee
 
glad to hear it's all good. Curiously, I would say my '78 and '79 Kiev's have almost the exact same finish as my early '70's Canonet and Minolta SRT. If earlier Kiev's really have anything on mine, they clearly were well-made cameras from craftsmen. Craftsmen compared to Japanese factory workers, anyway, if I can say that without denigrating anyone.
 
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