Philip Whiteman
Well-known
Thanks to the Tooke manual, the Kiev Survivors site and a load of invaluable advice from people on this forum, I have now enjoyed using a self-restored Contax II for most of this year. Clearly much loved and used in its previous life, the camera came with a home-made (or possibly modified Contax I) ever-ready case - complete with a pepper-grinder wheel doubling as the securing screw, post-war plastic take-up spool and a 1935 collapsible Sonnar. One shutter ribbon was broken, the focus mount was seized, it was grubby and the viewfinder was foggy - however the asking price was about what you'd pay for a late 1970s or 80s Kiev 4 and I was able to fix it.
I did get hold of the correct, beautifully made ERC (these things are works of art) and prefer using it with the 1959 Jupiter 8 I bought on eBay (as sharp as the Sonnar but usefully more contrasty) but have resisted the temptation to replace the dented and scratched top and front plates, or restore the Zeiss-bumped leather because doing these things to a camera that has such a history seems to be wrong.
This K serial camera is, I have learned from this forum, an export model and would probably not have been sold new to a British owner. This makes it all the more intriguing to me: was it 'liberated' from the Continent during WWII or did it come over as a legitimate import in the 1940s or 50s? How did it end up in south-west London in 2017? And why did someone go to all the trouble of making/modifying that ERC case to carry it?
The dealer I bought it from has no record of who it came from, saying it was probably something that came in from a house clearance or whatever. So I will probably never know - but how much more interesting it is to be using a camera with such mystery about it!
Or am I a mad romantic?
I did get hold of the correct, beautifully made ERC (these things are works of art) and prefer using it with the 1959 Jupiter 8 I bought on eBay (as sharp as the Sonnar but usefully more contrasty) but have resisted the temptation to replace the dented and scratched top and front plates, or restore the Zeiss-bumped leather because doing these things to a camera that has such a history seems to be wrong.
This K serial camera is, I have learned from this forum, an export model and would probably not have been sold new to a British owner. This makes it all the more intriguing to me: was it 'liberated' from the Continent during WWII or did it come over as a legitimate import in the 1940s or 50s? How did it end up in south-west London in 2017? And why did someone go to all the trouble of making/modifying that ERC case to carry it?
The dealer I bought it from has no record of who it came from, saying it was probably something that came in from a house clearance or whatever. So I will probably never know - but how much more interesting it is to be using a camera with such mystery about it!
Or am I a mad romantic?
xayraa33
rangefinder user and fancier
It could have came with continental refugees in 1939, as many were not allowed to take currency with them, but highly desired valuables were allowed. The non standard ER case could have been a later UK addition of later years.