Kiev-2a rehabbed by Oleg

[pshinkaw]

I acquired a nice circa 1957 Kiev-2a last week from a US Seller. The Seller said that it had recently been rehabbed by Oleg. It turned out to be a very smooth camera. The wheel focus with the Jupiter-8 and the bright rangefinder patch make it focus faster than my Leica M-2. It is just as quiet as the Leica.

Interestingly, the body must have been built somewhere in the transition from Kiev-2 to 2a. It has the bottom/back locks of an old style model 2 with the flip-out foot. However, it has PC sinc of the 2a. Many of the other 2a's I've seen have the same bottom/back locks as the later 4 and 4A. but with the flip-out foot.

Test roll photos are on Flickr here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43896929@N00/

-Paul

 

[Wahoo]

Test roll photos are on Flickr here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/43896929@N00/

There are some superb photos there and I particuarly like those taken with your Rolliecird 111 of the Yellowstone River and Grand Canyon to Yellowstone River.

A real pleasure - thanks.

 

[pshinkaw]

Thank you! Since they were not done on a rangefinder, I didn't want to display them here. Flickr is a neutral site.

-Paul

 

[darkkavenger]

Paul, the photos are great! I think your 1957 is a normal Kiev-2A and has its typical features. I owned a Kiev 2A from 1956 and it had the flash sync and the old-style bottom with the stabilizer foot. Same goes for the 3A models. 🙂

 

[pshinkaw]

The Kiev-IIA shown on Nathan Dayton's site

http://www.commiecameras.com/sov/35mmrangefindercameras/cameras/kiev/index.htm

is a1959 model. It has the recessed bottom locks found opn the Kiev-4A, but it also has the flip-up foot.

Soviet improvements to models was made incrementally so changes were introduced over a long period time.

-Paul

 

[darkkavenger]

Yes it's true. From the several early Kievs I've handled the Kiev-2A production time seems to be set between 1956-1958, with some late 1955 models having the flash sync. Around the end of 1958 production gradually switched on copying the Contax-IIA/IIIA thus giving birth to models 4 and 4A.

The 1955 year is quite heavy in changes with the switching/mixup of KNEB inscriptions into KNEB/KIEV, models with or without flash sync. It's quite an interesting thing to see, I wonder how they managed to keep up!

 

[mike goldberg]

Hi... The Nathan Dayton site is a great link. I guess I'm pretty lucky; the K4a that Fedka sent me last year is an early one, 1960 with 1250 as the top speed, and no flipout foot. The J8m was actually purchased ahead of the body for $19-; it is a 53/2. What an amazing lens!

This K4a may have been CLA'd at some point, but who knows when? The winding is smooth, and my only complaint is around a characteristic Kiev problem: changing of shutter speeds [when cocked] in the direction of higher speeds, is a bit difficult.

I would not compare a Kiev to a Leica M2; that's like comparing apples to oranges. They are both good, but different.

Cheers, mike

 

[outfitter]

Neither Nathan or the comments above are 100% accurate - for example the KNEB/KIEV marking (as an engraving not stamped) existed on the Kiev 2 until 1955, some syncs were apparently installed by the factory on Kiev 2 cameras as prototypes or whatever and I have a number of cameras that have earlier dates than given in Princelle - which only goes to show the difficulty of creating collector's classification for production items.

IMO any camera with a back using the Contax IIa/IIIa type pressure plate and springs is a Kiev 4a and not a Kiev 2a. As far as I know the recessed locking keys and missing foot were only used in conjunction with a pressure plate of the Contax IIa/IIIa type - when used on the much longer Kiev (Contax II/III) film plane some claim it caused film flatness problems (e.g. Peter Hennig).

Michael