Nice Story about the Contax & Kiev

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Because I am not so familiar yet with the Contax & Kiev, I was googling and just found a nice history about the transition of production of the Contax/Kiev from Dresden to Arsenal:

http://www3.telus.net/public/rpnchbck/zconrfKiev.htm

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Ron,

The f/0.9 prototype was a new one on me. Fascinating! The extra 2 glasses and (I assume) the use of multicoating should have made it significantly better than the Canon f/0.95.

Thanks very much inded.

Cheers,

Roger

 

[NickTrop]

“This is not a Soviet camera - it is a German camera, made in the Soviet Union”
---

Hmmmmmmmmmm.... interesting. (I will not by a Kiev, I will not buy a Kiev, I have way too many cameras including 3 FSUs, I will not by a Kiev...)

 

[Vince Lupo]

I have a 1954 Kiev III and I have to say that the quality of this camera is very nice indeed, and it seems to be as reliable as anything else I have. Can't vouch for the later Kiev's though.....

 

[Highway 61]

The f/0.9 prototype was a new one on me. Fascinating!

Thanks for that link Ron, wonderful stuff!

This might be the main Internet's paradoxal point. While good and documented scientific info is all around, nobody seems to get it by oneself till someone abroad a forum "discovers" it.

Look at Peter Hennig's article header once you display the page sourcecode :

<META NAME="CREATED" CONTENT="20060503;17573801">

And before they got accessible through the KSS since 2006/05/03 these articles by Peter Hennig used to be on Stephen Gandy's CameraQuest website, at the Contax pages of the Classic Cameras Profiles chapter.

As for myself I had the first version of that great article saved on my HD six years ago now.

@Richard : don't forget to browse the links that are down that page :

http://www.zeisshistorica.org/

 

[BillBingham2]

Ron,

Thank you very much for sharing. A wonderful read, great info!

B2 (;->

 

[Highway 61]

I'm mystified. This is a reference article that just anyone being here in the middle of the cyberspace nowhere and having the least tiny bit of interest towards the Contax / Kiev rangefinders should have read long, long, long ago.

Maybe this is a side effect on the "me in the mirror with my cat and my rangefinder gear" syndrome over the RFF single-divorced-having-mid-life-crisis crowd.

 

[Highway 61]

I have a Kiev4a that I love to USE.

Geez. A Kiev is a camera which is designed to be dismantled, to have any of its parts cleaned, then to be relubed so that it's smoooooooooooooth as silk (as an older ad for the Thaï Airlines used to say).

"You're such a character !" (as somebody in "The Maltese Falcon" kept saying to Sam S.).

😛

 

[Anupam]

My old Kiev simply oozed class - one of the best cameras I have ever used. I would put it beside my F3 - and that is some compliment. I was surprised how different it felt from other FSU cameras, which most of the time IMO feel like crap.

 

[Highway 61]

What's yours like?:angel:

I don't have them (had a IIa and a 4) any longer (both sold long ago w/ no regrets). So mine are more smoothy-dreamy than any of your most dreamy-creamy sweet Kiev dreams.

Nice colourful Aliens' drop-zone avatar BTW. So you're done with your "Pitxu, The Man with 1000 Faces" trip ? Or is that avatar an answer to Ned's new one (just a thought, haven't noticed if Ned swapped his) ?

😀