Kiev 4a aka "World's Finest 35mm Rangefinder Camera"

[titrisol]

Cambridge camera was famous for their bombastic ads, and shoddy quality of their products

I bought a mirror tele-lens and a gizmo to take pictures at 90degrees in 1985
Both worked fine for a few weeks and broke.

Now the Kiev4a is a very good camera, I bought one just a few weeks back and I'm enjoying it
It takes a while to get used to the Zeiss grip and to the weird speeds
But it just does what it has to do in a very unobtrusive manner

 

[xayraa33]

I just now re-discovered my 1972 Kiev 4 camera that I bought in April 1994 from the now long gone Alt Camera store in Toronto. Got some Fomapan 400 film loaded up in it and taking it out for a spin. The 1972 model was the last year of the really good ones and they started to go down hill in small increments starting in 1973 and ending up with those early 1980s concoctions that Cambridge Camera Exchange was selling.

 

[Dogman]

The Kiev camera was actually a better camera than Cambridge was a camera store.

 

[ranger9]

The Kiev camera was actually a better camera than Cambridge was a camera store.

Maybe, but you're setting a pretty low bar there...

 

[Retro-Grouch]

The Kiev camera was actually a better camera than Cambridge was a camera store.

Let's not make too fine a point of it; "Camcam" (as they called themselves) were scumbags, as I learned through several experiences.