Bought a Kiev 4 M by accident!

[BW400CN]

A friend of mine allways wanted a Contax or Nikon RF, but before spending a lot of money on it he wanted to test a cheap version to see if he likes this type of cam.
He ísn´t well on computers - so I placed him a cam he found in the bay in my bidding program.
A Day before the bidding ends he found a Contax for a very reasonable price from a neighbor and told it to me.
I noticed it and forgot to replace to cam out of my bidding program.

Ok I made the run and bought a Kiev 4 M for 30,-€ incl. shiping.

The shutter should work fine is all I know.

What shall I expect from this cam? Shall I keep it or sell it at the moment I get it?
I´ve never ever thought about russkis or Contax before so any help on this?

 

[oftheherd]

I would at least run couple of rolls of film through it. I have a Kiev 4am that I enjoy using some. I am more an SLR person in 35mm photography, but there are times I enjoy pulling out the Kiev.

 

[BW400CN]

I love my Kodak Retina III S but why should I keep another system?
I´m more into SLR (Voigtländer Bessamatic - Canon FD - Nikon digital and film)

Is there a point that makes a Kiev/Contax unique to use and worth to keep when you have a lot of cams?

I´ve just seen there are no frame lines in the finder - if you want more lense you will need an external finder - is this fine to use or anoing?

 

[Joao]

Some people never get used to the wheel for focusing, and this may be a con. OTOH you can have a variety of decent and inexpensive lenses to try. An external finder is no a nuisance to me, but others may not like it.

I second the previous sugestion: try a couple of rolls and decide after.
Good luck
Joao

 

[brbo]

Is there a point that makes a Kiev/Contax unique to use and worth to keep when you have a lot of cams?

One reason.

This is the best way to experience Sonnar 1,5/50 lens (lets forget about modern ZM C-Sonnar for a moment). Contax mount Sonnars (and Sonnar clones) don't have registration distance mismatch problems and Contax/Kiev RF cameras have a very long baseline length so focusing a fast 50mm lens is very accurate.

 

[ray*j*gun]

Quality control on the later Kievs is quite poor. If everything works and you don't mind the rough feel then the lenses for this camera are tops.

 

[raytoei@gmail.com]

the helios-103 53/1.8f lens is quite nice, in additional to the jupiter-8
with click-stops. as brbo suggested in the post earlier, the 50/f1.5
sonnar or the quite rare jupiter-3 would be excellent as well.

 

[Elmar Lang]

Using a rangefinder Kiev, also in its latest versions (when well assembled/tested) can be a very fine surprise.

 

[Frontman]

Kievs are surprisingly popular in Tokyo, and I know of at least one professional photographer who carries one regularly. The Kiev, like the Contax, is a quiet and steady camera, and the Sonnar type lenses are very nice. I have a Kiev 4 that I sometimes fool around with, perhaps I'll give it a good workout in the next FSU contest.

 

[KoNickon]

I would not expect the meter to be accurate -- even for selenium meters. But don't worry about that. Check for light leaks also.

What impresses me is that, even after decades of ever-declining Soviet quality control and corner-cutting in production, the 1980s vintage Kievs do work pretty well, all things considered.

 

[wolves3012]

If it's working properly, a Kiev is a nice camera to use. On the metered models, probably the majority of meters are dead by now and personally I never found it terribly useful anyway (others have disagreed there though).

Cons are the back-to-front focussing direction that catches me out a lot and the wheel is fiddly to use plus the "Contax-grip" is not everyone's taste.

Pros are an accurate RF, a quiet (metal) shutter and it's a pretty substantial piece of kit. Not to mention the lenses are pretty good, especially the (cheap) Helios 103.

As other have said - try it before you decide you won't like it.

 

[Wahoo]

I bought about 8 or 9 Kiev 4's way back when and the going price was about price £8 to £15, I still have most of them but like all my cameras they rarely (if ever) are used.

Those Helios 103's : If they're that good I'll need to try one.

Here's a couple of piccies taken with an eighties 4 AN Jupiter 50mm about 3 years ago.

Nice little pub, the White Swan

 

[BW400CN]

Ok the cam arrived today.
Looks nice the RF is great!
Meter isn´t working - OK I can live with out it 😉
Shutter - lower curtain isn´t working and all speeds are very slow!
Lens is in a fantastic condition!

So no possibility to run a fim trough it :bang:

I send Oleg - http://www.okvintagecamera.com/index.html - a mail to see if he could bring this beauty to its former glory.

I know it would be cheaper to send the cam back and try to find a better one - but I hate to trow things away and this will hapen to this cam!

I´ve never tuched a Contax or Kiev before and imediatly fall in love when I tuched it the first time - so I will bring it back to live.

 

[Elmar Lang]

It seems that your Kiev suffers the typical problem of the RF Contax "family": broken shutter ties.

I think that Oleg Khalyavin will do a perfect repair.

A Kiev will give years and years of very fine pictures.

E.L.

 

[BW400CN]

Ok - got the replay from Oleg and the cam will leave on Monday.