Kiev 88CM

[Rhodes]

Stumble upon this:
http://cgi.ebay.de/KIEV-88-CM-88CM-...1?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_186&hash=item56401f3755

I am looking for some a diffrent kind of MF. Should I go for this? What do you think? Or shoud I save the money for a color-skopar 35? Or go for a kiev 60 and continue to use my pouva start.

 

[carljmoss]

They always say that buying a Kiev is like buying a box of unmarked chocolates: you never know what you've got until you get it home.

The one you link to has quite a hefty pricetag. If you're willing to spend that much, take a look at the ARAX website: all their Kievs are overhauled and adjusted before you get them.

If it's a MF rangefinder you're thinking of getting, why not try a folder as a first step? You can pick them up - mostly unserviced - on the 'Bay but go to Jurgen Kreckel's site http://www.certo6.com before you do. He's got lots of information about models there. I have more folders than I can justify - one of them is a Moskva-5 which has a coupled rangefinder and a very nice Industar lens. It produces 6x6 and 6x9 images.

 

[rbiemer]

If I were looking for a Kiev 88, I would probably choose this one:
http://araxphoto.com/cameras/arax-cm-start/
A bit more $ but i was very happy with the Kiev 60 I bought from Arax.

Rob

 

[bolohead]

I'll also suggest going to Arax. The original models are very prone to mechanical problems. I believe the C/M comes with the Pentacon 6 mount so you can take advantage of the relatively inexpensive Carl Zeiss Jena glass.

 

[mto'brien]

i never had a kiev 88, mostly because of the problems that i have seen reported with them. i seem to remember reading about a lot of light leak issues and shutter blowouts. so, i decided to go with a kiev 6c instead, which worked great until i attempted to use a cable release and the thing had a major seizure. I now have a kiev 60 and a kiev 645 (basically a 60 with a 1/2 frame mask and adjusted advance gears). both have been fine and i love the FSU P6 optics you can get for dirt cheap. if you go for a kiev 60, you may want to look for one with the mirror lock up modification as the mirror slap is not unlike a door slamming. oh, and size wise, the thing is an absolute monster. best of luck, comrade.

 

[rxmd]

Stumble upon this:
http://cgi.ebay.de/KIEV-88-CM-88CM-...1?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_186&hash=item56401f3755

I am looking for some a diffrent kind of MF. Should I go for this? What do you think? Or shoud I save the money for a color-skopar 35? Or go for a kiev 60 and continue to use my pouva start.

Don't buy a Kiev 88 on eBay. It's a pretty random game.

In general the suggestion of getting it at Arax is a very good one. I bought a Kiev 88 from a friend in Tashkent and when it started to go capricious, had it overhauled at Arax. I'm happy with the quality of both the workmanship and the service. It costs a fair bit more, but it's worth it. Don't go for all the extras; in particular mirror lock-up may be a bad idea in a Kiev 88, because it introduces further complexity into a mechanism which is already capricious. You can save money and end up with a more reliable camera.

The suggestion of getting a Kiev 60 instead is also a good one. It's a bit bigger, but it has much less to go wrong and is the more solid camera - in my opinion the most reliable of all the former Eastern Bloc medium format SLRs, including the Pentacon Six.

 

[ZorkiKat]

Don't buy a Kiev 88 on eBay. It's a pretty random game.

In general the suggestion of getting it at Arax is a very good one. I bought a Kiev 88 from a friend in Tashkent and when it started to go capricious, had it overhauled at Arax. I'm happy with the quality of both the workmanship and the service. It costs a fair bit more, but it's worth it. Don't go for all the extras; in particular mirror lock-up may be a bad idea in a Kiev 88, because it introduces further complexity into a mechanism which is already capricious. You can save money and end up with a more reliable camera.

The suggestion of getting a Kiev 60 instead is also a good one. It's a bit bigger, but it has much less to go wrong and is the more solid camera - in my opinion the most reliable of all the former Eastern Bloc medium format SLRs, including the Pentacon Six.

I have about 5 Kiev bodies now. All conked out, three were eBay purchases, one from elsewhere, and one overpriced from Kiev USA. A friend who has since migrated to the US worked on two of them in 2001. They're still working. Their delicate, easy to tear metal foil shutters have been replaced with rubberised cloth.

A properly adjusted Kiev will work well if handled carefully. The failures are often due to badly machined parts or loose and haphazard assembly. Once these are are addressed, the camera will work quite well.

The only thing that really kills a Kiev 88 is changing shutter speeds without cocking the shutter first.

 

[Rhodes]

Thank you for your awnsers, I am still not know what to do, possibly wait a little more and see. The reaasons for a MF with shutter and ttl metering is to explore more the MF format and use in several situations and of course do some pushing/pulling etc. My mf camera is a point and shoot at iso from box of film. Although I like some of the effects of that camera.

About the changing speeds only after cocking the shutter, it's similar to what one should do in the kiev/fed/zorky/leica ltm cameras or am I mistaken?

 

[ZorkiKat]

About the changing speeds only after cocking the shutter, it's similar to what one should do in the kiev/fed/zorky/leica ltm cameras or am I mistaken?

Yes, quite.

Of the FED and Zorki without slow speeds, setting the shutter speed without cocking the shutter will not likely wreck the mechanism. It will just make setting the desired speed impossible.

Those with slow speeds have two sets of speed setting discs, and if the shutter speed is changed with the shutter untensed, the setting pin gets meshed.

Kiev 88 on the other hand use a stacked set of gears (3 or 4 I believe) which must be synched properly to work. One gear does the same work as the speed setting in FED and Zorki Shutters. The others are linked to the film advance, mirror positioning, and shutter cocking. When the shutter is fired, the placement of the stacked gears change. Resetting the speed at this point will cause the stacked gears to go out of sync and this can jam the mechanism.