1957 Kiev IIa with Helios 103

Ron-M

Ron
Local time
11:36 AM
Joined
Mar 28, 2014
Messages
34
I bought this camera and lens from Fedka a few years ago. I paid the premium and got an excellent camera and was very happy with this great looking camera. Turned out to have some light leaks and while I'm sure it would have been fixed no problem by Fedka (really nice guy) I sent it to STANISLAV STUDZINSKIY of mechanical cameras for a complete CLA with what ever it needed to make it right. He did a great job. I didn't know a Kiev could be so smooth. I like it about as well as my Contaxes. I have 1954, 55, 56 and 57 Kievs but have never used the later ones since I heard they can vary greatly.

Long winded I know!! While I do a lot of photography and have stacks of prints I seldom post pictures more than once or twice a year. So here goes this years photos with the Kiev and Helios 103 and my first pictures on RFF. I would love to see others shots with this lens. I have several J-8s and others but wow this is a nice lens.

Lets see some Helios 103 shots. Any camera.

I usually shoot B&W but these are Fuji Superia 400 X-TRA. Jobo CPA-2, Jobo press kit that B&H will no longer mail and my last kit.







 
Love the Helios 103 too. It's got a typical 'double gauss' design and look. Its very close to the Summar and Helios 44.

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The Helios is a great lens! I have one each in Nikon, Contax and LTM mounts. All done by Brian Sweeney.

I had thought about getting Brian to work on a lense for me a while ago but couldn't seem to locate him. Is he still working on lenses??
 
I had thought about getting Brian to work on a lense for me a while ago but couldn't seem to locate him. Is he still working on lenses??

I haven't seen Brian here for a long time. I don't know if he still plays around with hacking lenses etc. I will dig around and see if i have an email addy for him and PM if i find something.
 
Brian worked on 3 mid-40's Canon 50/3.5 for me. Fantastic work, they looked amazing. I also had him switch CZ 50/2.0 into a Russian mount, and collimate and check it out. I use that now on an M3. I've always liked the Contax glass, and it works nicely on a Leica.

Brian was a great asset here. It guess there were issues we don't know about. Hope he's still active, as I could use his services for a couple of problems.
 
I own a number of Brian tweeked lenses and they are wonderful. I foolishly sold 2 in recent years and wish I hadn't. Great Guy all around.
 
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