Russian Nikon Replicas !??

[JonR]

Friends

Flying to Moscow for a business meeting on Thursday. Not that I think there will be time but if I happened to see a camera shop are there Russian "copies" of the Nikon RF cameras and/or lenses !?? I know there are all sorts of Leica copies but what is the story on Nikon ?? It would be interesting to understand more about this!



/jon

 

[ZorkiKat]

Unless they're now rebadging Kiev into Nikon 🙂........

 

[michaelging]

I never heard of Russian Nikons, but if you want a camera that will take your nikkor RF lenses , the Kiev's will.

 

[VinceC]

The Kiev rangefinder cameras were made by the Soviet Ukraine using Zeiss Contax equipment and expertise to continue manufacturing the pre-war Contax II and Contax III, almost unchanged for decades. The Soviet copies of Leicas were actual copies. The Kievs were more of a factory relocation.

After World War II, Nikon used the Zeiss Contax II as a starting point for its camera design, but made some substantial improvements/simplifications. The lens mounts are similar but, as noted above, not quite interchangeable.

 

[darkkavenger]

Wasn't it named after "Nikki" Krutschev ? 😉

 

[VinceC]

You could use this as an opportunity to pick up a nice 35/2.8 Jupiter lens.

 

[Tom A]

I understand that there was a Kiev made for the Russian army. This was a handbuilt "blue printed" (everything fitted to as close tolerances as possible) version. I do not know very much about the russian/ukranian camera industry per se, but some of the Kiev lenses work fine on the Nikon's. The 28f6 in Kiev/Contax/Nikon compatible mount would be a good fit for your S2.
Brian, can you do a quick listing of what is available for Nikon/Contax mounts?

 

[lubitel]

Sorry to burst your bubble but the true russian nikon copy is Nikita and not Nikki. and was named after Nikita Khrushchev.

edit: oops max was faster 🙂

 

[VinceC]

I believe there is a later Kiev model which copies the Nikon SLR F-mount, placiing it onto a very simple SLR camera. Not a rangefinder, but kind of interesting.

 

[darkkavenger]

It should be the Kiev-10, Kiev-15, Kiev-17 and Kiev-19 / 19M, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[varjag]

Vince, there are Kiev-19/20 series which are just that. The lens mount was designated as 'N', makes one wonder what it stands for 🙂

 

[NIKON KIU]

Vince, there are Kiev-19/20 series which are just that. The lens mount was designated as 'N', makes one wonder what it stands for 🙂

I have one of those things😱 😱

Will you people stop messing with that poor S2?

Kiu

 

[JonR]

Back from Russia

Back from Russia

Well
Back from Russia and thanks for all comments - I guess I learnt that being interested in Nikon stuff the things to look out for among Russian cameras are:
- Kiev 19/20-series cameras
- Kiev mount lenses (shorter) like 28 or 25

I had no time to look for cameras and to be honest I do not think Moscow would be a good place to look since it is like any other expensive big cities with focus on the latest and greatest. Nikon D80 much more expensive than in Europe.

I did take a few photos though when walking on the Red Sq. in the eavning (but with a digital Nikon P4 I must admit!)

/jon

 

[PetarDima]

Ohhhhhhhh ... Moscow :angel: