I Have Ordered A Kiev Mount SC 28mm - f3.5 Voigtlander Lens From Cameraquest

R

ruben

Guest
So what ?

So two things. First they are "in stock" for Kiev lovers.

Second this is the last nail making the Kievs my main Range-Finder shooter.

Why ? Up to last months Rangefinder cameras for me were just street photography cameras. All oher types of photography were dis-associated in my mind from RF cameras on behalf of my OM SLRs fleet.

But lately I noticed very well that I may be within the same day in both situations, photographing people (silent camera) and scenics or buildings, or landscapes (several lens) - Therefore a system rangefinder camera is required with the other lenses. The common Jupiter 12 (35mm), by no means could be considered by me as the end of the wide extreme.

I considered a 24 instead of 28mm (I have no idea if there is any in stock), but at the end I gave priority to the Universal Finder, which in my Kievs is an integral part of the camera.

The lens has costed only $ 299, before shipment, due to special CLOSE OUT sale price.

If some other lonely Kiev lover out there on the hills has been considering a wide - better to make decisions now.

Cheers,
Ruben

PS:
After several hard discussions on RFF, I unwillingly have to openly warn that Kiev cameras, in contrast to some other FSU cameras, are DIS-RECOMMENDED by me to anyone lacking the strong will and time to learn its basics, or to anyone lacking proven available tecnicians to fix and/or CLA them.
 
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Ruben, I think you will love everything about this lens. I think it is built better than many Voigtlander lenses, and the box, packing, art-work, etc. is just lovely. It's a bargain too. Here's a test shot taken with mine on a Kiev 4:

skopar28f25kiev.jpg
 
congratulation for your purchase.

I want to ask you something ruben. i have a OM-2n and a Fed 2 and i think that the shot of the OM doesn´t sound louder than the Fed shot. Do you think that the kiev shutter is a lot more silent than the OM shutter?

i want a very silent camera and i am thinking about buying a kiev or a voightlander bessa r. wich is more silent?

i think that the kiev doesn´t use the same lenses as the fed, but the voightlander does, is it correct?

excuse me for the offtopic
 
I got the ltm version of this lens, its all round good. Nice optics, solid build, tiny.

Lufftpablo, the Voigtlander Bessa R is no quieter than my sister's OM-1, probably a bit louder in fact and if you lock the mirror up on the OM it is definitely quieter. If you want the quietest RF, fixed lens leaf shutter cameras are the way to go. There again, in most situation quietness is overrated IMO.
 
lufftpablo said:
congratulation for your purchase.

I want to ask you something ruben. i have a OM-2n and a Fed 2 and i think that the shot of the OM doesn´t sound louder than the Fed shot. Do you think that the kiev shutter is a lot more silent than the OM shutter?

i want a very silent camera and i am thinking about buying a kiev or a voightlander bessa r. wich is more silent?

i think that the kiev doesn´t use the same lenses as the fed, but the voightlander does, is it correct?

excuse me for the offtopic
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You are asking a question of the highest importance to me personally. I will try to explain it to the best of my knowledge.

The OM1 is somewhat more silent than the OM2(n). It is held either by knowledge or prejudice as the most silent SLR.

The Bessa R according to Stephen Gandy in his site Cameraquest, is alike the OM1 in its sound.

It seems to me that other further Bessas are slightly more silent than the R, and here you have to follow Stephens site, since he is sensible too to this issue and honest to the core.

Now the most silent Bessa may sound more or less like an "average" Fed, or Kiev. I have heard once one of the first Bessa models, I own only 2 Feds, one OM1 and several differnt OM cameras and a dozen Kievs. So I am not a Bessa, nor a Fed specialist or either begginer. But by my common sense we are around the same OM1 sound, more or less, in rough lines. Being unaccurate here is for me, from my perspective, of not great importance because what follows is a very serious gap between the most silent SLR and one of the most silent rangefinders.

For your knowledge, there is a great technician in Ukraine, called Oleg, with which many of us have extensive relations, that knows how to silence a Fed to extraordinary low levels, taking you quite far from the most silent Bessa.

I sent him mine once and his work was quite alike the single Leica of Mike, I have around to compare.

Now, I never did this silencing work myself, but it is based on distensioning the shutter up to the necessary to fit the speeds you need. Most Soviet cameras arrive to our hand with overtensioned shutters. Overtension equals noise.

But I know and have distensioned my Kiev shutters and they surpass in a further qualitative leve Oleg job on my Fed. Alhough you understand we are comparing apples and oranges.

I am not the only one in RFF who has distensioned a Kiev shutter and other few folks like me speak about a wonderland which makes others to think we are dreaming rather than stating facts.

Now, distensioning the shutter of a Kiev, is understood by us not just as the simple operation of adjusting one specific screw there, but a full and serious Cleaning, Lubricating and Adjusting the whole camera to help the noise issue, among other important issues as well. It is a tedious work for which you will have to invest a lot of time in learning.

Another alternative, may be to buy a Soviet Kiev, send it from the seller to Oleg, and let Oleg perform a full CLA plus "silencing" - Silencing is a job Oleg will be glad to do for you with no further charge, but may forget if you don't specifically mention it.

So far my knowledge.

Other alternatives are fixed lens cameras of extraordinary low level noise shutters. This will require you to open a new thread, and I assume the small Canonet QL 17 GIII 40mm lens will be the most acclaimed for owning additional qualities to its silent shutter. In terms of noise only lowest level, my champion is the fixed lens Olympus RC 40mm f/2.8. Notice at this point that according to your personal manners, a fixed lens may or may not stand in the same level as a system camera. like the Feds or Kievs.

By the way I think that my Kievs sound as low as a Canonet QLGIII. I know I know some folks may think I am exagerating. Fine we have argued abouit it in the past and there is no factual possibility to gather for a worlwide silent shutter championship.

A second angle for the whole issue: we are now at the Everest of silent shutters. It is questionable, or controversial if such low noyse levels are needed or may be compensated instead with a noyser camera but a bolder photographer. - A nice question to open another thread.

Cheers,
Ruben

PS:
After several hard discussions on RFF, I unwillingly have to openly warn that Kiev cameras, in contrast to some other FSU cameras, are DIS-RECOMMENDED by me to anyone lacking the strong will and time to learn its basics, or to anyone lacking proven available tecnicians to fix and/or CLA them.
 
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ruben said:
So what ?

So two things. First they are "in stock" for Kiev lovers.
Click to expand...

And Nikon rangefinder lovers too ;)

In the user's guide for the lens you'll see that it says the lens is actually designed for the Nikon S-mount, but of course will work just fine on an old Contax or Kiev camera (hence the SC designation).

Congratulations on your new lens, Ruben. I use an SC-mount 28mm f3.5 on my Nikon SP and it's an excellent lens - extremely sharp. I've also used the SC 21/4, SC 25/4, and SC 35/2.5 and they're all excellent. Highly recommended :)
 
David Murphy said:
Ruben, I think you will love everything about this lens. I think it is built better than many Voigtlander lenses, and the box, packing, art-work, etc. is just lovely. It's a bargain too. Here's a test shot taken with mine on a Kiev 4:

skopar28f25kiev.jpg
Click to expand...

where have you been all this time David ? (I don't know which smiler to add here)

Ceirtainly it would be a great attraction an usefull info to view a series of pics with this lens mounted on your Kiev long ago.

Cheers,
Ruben
 
jonmanjiro said:
...........In the user's guide for the lens you'll see that it says the lens is actually designed for the Nikon S-mount, but of course will work just fine on an old Contax or Kiev camera (hence the SC designation). ....................
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Now you send me back to confusion.
Up to your post I understood that several Nikon wides and standards will fit the Contax, while from some standards to tele the lens sligthly differ and if you are refering to Nikkors they should bear the letter "C" to be perfectly fitting prewar Contaxes.

Within the above said by me, I understood that the fitting of the Nikkor wides, without the "C" mark, on Kievs or prewar Contaxes, was what we may call a "general fitting", not necessarily producing a sharp result at all apertures.

Hence that alike Nikon, also Cosina used a different designation for Nikon and Contax cameras, SC being the one for Contax, of course.

Would someone like to rescue me ?

Cheers,
Ruben
 
"is SC 28mm - f3.5 Voigtlander a high contrast or low contrast lens?"

High. Which is great :) My avatar was shot with it, BTW.
 
ruben said:
Now you send me back to confusion.
Up to your post I understood that several Nikon wides and standards will fit the Contax, while from some standards to tele the lens sligthly differ and if you are refering to Nikkors they should bear the letter "C" to be perfectly fitting prewar Contaxes.

Within the above said by me, I understood that the fitting of the Nikkor wides, without the "C" mark, on Kievs or prewar Contaxes, was what we may call a "general fitting", not necessarily producing a sharp result at all apertures.

Hence that alike Nikon, also Cosina used a different designation for Nikon and Contax cameras, SC being the one for Contax, of course.

Would someone like to rescue me ?

Cheers,
Ruben
Click to expand...

With the Nikkors, the only lenses that have the "C" mark indicating that they are for the old Contax mount are the telephoto lenses from 8.5cm to 13.5cm. Nikon never made a Contax version for any lens from 2.1cm to 5cm. On Contax/Kiev cameras, focus for the 5cm Nikkors will be slightly inaccurate at fast apertures (f1.4, f2, f2.8) and close distances, but Nikkors from 2.1cm to 3.5cm will focus fine because depth fo field (DOF) will cover the focus error.

As the Voigtlander SC/S lenses also were designed for the Nikon S-mount, the same goes for them too. If you take a look at this link to Cosina's website, you'll see that they list the lenses from 21mm to 35mm as SC lenses (SC means Nikon S-mount/Contax mount) but the lenses from 50mm to 85mm are listed as S lenses (no C) because these longer lenses will only focus accuately on a Nikon rangefinder body.

The list of the lenses on the Cosina website is as follows:

(compatible for Nikon S-mount and Contax mount)
SC-Skopar 21mm f4
SC-Skopar 25mm f4
SC-Skopar 28mm f3.5
SC-Skopar 35mm f2.5

(compatible for Nikon S-mount)
S-Skopar 50mm f2.5
S-Nokton 50mm f1.5
S-Apo Lanther 85mm f3.5

Hope that helps!
 
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DanOnRoute66 said:
Now I'm confused. Are you saying that the wide angle SC Skopars don't actually focus accurately on Voigtlander, Contax, Kiev bodies, but that instead, they're relying on depth of field to sort of make up the difference? I tried the Consina Web site, by the way, but I don't speak Japanese.
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Strictly speaking, yes. But you will never see any focusing inaccuracies in your photos taken with any of the SC lenses on Contax or Kiev cameras because the depth of field will cover it.
 
DanOnRoute66 said:
Now I'm confused. Are you saying that the wide angle SC Skopars don't actually focus accurately on Voigtlander, Contax, Kiev bodies, but that instead, they're relying on depth of field to sort of make up the difference? I tried the Consina Web site, by the way, but I don't speak Japanese.
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There is no info translated on Cosina's English page regarding the discontinued SC lenses, but from Stephen's Cameraquest site....

The SC Skopar Wides fit Classic Contax Too !

The Voigtlander 35/2.5 mounted on a post war Zeiss Contax IIa. Nikon copied the Zeiss Contax bayonet mount and back focus, but did not use an identical rotation from close-up to infinity. The difference is generally considered negligible in wide angles, but gave focusing problems in interchanging Nikon and Contax tele lenses. Contax RF's make a sensible and lower cost wide angle companion body for Nikon Rangefinder shooters -- all 4 or 5 of them.
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jonmanjiro said:
....... Nikon never made a Contax version for any lens from 2.1cm to 5cm. On Contax/Kiev cameras, focus for the 5cm Nikkors will be slightly inaccurate at fast apertures (f1.4, f2, f2.8) and close distances, but Nikkors from 2.1cm to 3.5cm will focus fine because depth fo field (DOF) will cover the focus error.
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Hi jonmanjiro,

What are these ?:

Nikkor C 2.5cm f/4:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Nikon-2-5cm-f4-...temQQptZCamera_Lenses?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

Nikkor C 3.5cm f/3.5:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Nikon-3-5cm-f3-...temQQptZCamera_Lenses?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116


Nikkor C 5cm f/2:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Nikon-5cm-f2-rangefinder-lens-Nikkor-H-C-Contax-RF-1-2_W0QQitemZ200258138226QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCamera_Lenses?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116


Nikkor C 5cm f/1.4 (This case f/1.4 is really dramatic) :
http://cgi.ebay.com/Nikon-5cm-f1-4-...temQQptZCamera_Lenses?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116


As everybody can see all these lenses are being sold by the same seller. In case anybody here thinks the red "C", marked on the front of the lens doesn't indicate for Contax, or that this "C" may be some latter mark, not from Nikon factory, or that this "C" is just dubious - You are kindly invited to copy/paste the following uncompromising sentence:

"To the best of my knowledge this lens is unknown to me"

Cheers,
Ruben
 
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In case anybody here thinks the red "C", marked on the front of the lens doesn't indicate for Contax
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The red C on the filter ring there does not indicate that the lenses are made for Contax. I forget what it stands for, but it absolutely does not indicate that it is made for Contax.

The Nikkor lenses which are made for Contax have a C engraved on the lens barrel. I will have to go see if I can find a photo of one.
 
First, from the book of Gandy....

The problem created by the "solution" is that ALL Nikon lenses will interact with the longer throw helical in the Nikon body, that was originally modified for the Canon 50/3.5 Nikkor lens. For 35 and shorter lenses, the difference is so small as to normally be considered inconsequential, allowing for the interchangeability of Nikon and Contax wide angles. With 50mm and longer lenses, the difference begins to add up so that wide open and close up, Nikon and Contax lenses are not compatible. But if you shoot at medium and longer distances, or at medium or smaller apertures, depth of field will usually take care of the focus error. As focal length increases, the problem increases, to the point that Nikon made special 85/2, 105/2.5, and 135/3.5 lenses for Contax, so marked on the lens barrel with a "C."
Click to expand...

http://www.cameraquest.com/NRF-Contax.htm
 
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