Some Kiev 2A photos

[Mr_Flibble]

When I used this camera earlier this summer I was kind of disappointed. It had refused to rewind properly and I ended up with two half rolls of film :bang:
I had shot a roll of Fuji Superia through it and I was not impressed by the colour.


This winter I took it with me to Bastogne and a week later on a wintery stroll through my area. This time I shot a roll of BW400CN through it and my appreciation for the Kiev grew once more.

KIEV 2A, Jupiter-8, Kodak BW400CN

My scanner doesn't do them justice really (and I should really save them without compression)

 

[darkkavenger]

that's a nice job done with your Kiev. I especially enjoy the realism of the 2nd photo, it's striking, and the J8 seems top-notch! what years are this 2A and J8 ?

It's reassuring to see that there are still people who call a dog 'dog', and a cat 'cat'. In your case, calling your camera a Kiev-2A, I wouldn't be surprised some day to read about a silly "Kontax-2A" ...

It's really annoying to read about all these 'Kontax' thingies. I own both Kiev & Contax cameras, I enjoy both, and I am not ashamed to present a Kiev for what it is 🙂 Ah well, sorry for the rant, some of the recent posts on the FSU forum are just annoying and senseless, so it's refreshing to see something about photography from time to time! 😀

Cheers,
Max

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Thanks for the kind words Max,

I guess I'm too much of a RF-newbie and too honest about the cameras I own 😉

To be honest I took it with me to Bastogne hoping nobody would notice it wasn't a Contax II. It also saved me some trouble when my Kodak PH-324 jammed halfway through the weekend.

I have not yet sat down and checked the serialnumbers of this camera. I will do so when I get home from work today.

The J8 does have some cleaning marks but that doesn't seem to bother its qualities much.


Regards,

 

[nzeeman]

that's a nice job done with your Kiev. I especially enjoy the realism of the 2nd photo, it's striking, and the J8 seems top-notch! what years are this 2A and J8 ?

It's reassuring to see that there are still people who call a dog 'dog', and a cat 'cat'. In your case, calling your camera a Kiev-2A, I wouldn't be surprised some day to read about a silly "Kontax-2A" ...

It's really annoying to read about all these 'Kontax' thingies. I own both Kiev & Contax cameras, I enjoy both, and I am not ashamed to present a Kiev for what it is 🙂 Ah well, sorry for the rant, some of the recent posts on the FSU forum are just annoying and senseless, so it's refreshing to see something about photography from time to time! 😀

Cheers,
Max

i dont think that kontax was introduced because someone is ashamed of kiev - i think it is just opposite. that tries to show people that there is no differences among camer, and that kiev is not cheap fsu copy as many people on the internet try to say.
also i think that there are a lot of photography threads in last few weeks - but it seems that people are not interested enough for the. nobody joins the photo contests anymore, nobody goes to galleries. 2 years ago even my worse photos hade 20 views at least, and now that is most views i can expect. 🙁

 

[Marc-A.]

Nice pictures Rick. Enjoy that great camera. The Jupiter 8 is a wonderful lens, especially for portrait (tell me about Jupiter glow!); you should also try the cheap and amazing Helios 103. But you should know that a lot of Kiev 2/2A don't allow H103 because of tolerance issue. But if you find a H103 that can be mounted on your Kiev2A, you won't regret it.

also i think that there are a lot of photography threads in last few weeks

I've noticed that too.

but it seems that people are not interested enough for the. nobody joins the photo contests anymore, nobody goes to galleries. 2 years ago even my worse photos hade 20 views at least, and now that is most views i can expect. 🙁

We are working on this issue to change things here, right? 😉

Max, I kinda agree with you about the "Kontax" thing. I had a Kiev 2 and was proud to say it was a Kiev! Oh my beloved Kiev. (However, I must admit that when I sold it, I mention the fact it was more than a Contax copy).

I cannot help posting a picture of it here.

 

[kmack]

You got some great tone out of that film. Nice job, your exposures seem to be spot on. You really have a way with the Kiev.

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Thanks guys,

All exposures were guestimates, between f/8 and f/4 and shutterspeeds of 1/500th.
I've also shot a few photos wide-open in a poorly lit kitchen at 1/125, but they came out slightly underexposed, they may not make it to my photogalleries 😉

Max,
The camera has serial number 5616601, so if I got this correctly it's been built in 1956.
The Jupiter-8 has number 5741594, so that would mean 1957 ?


Regards,

 

[TVphotog]

Great shots there. Being a WW2 buff myself I hope to make it to Bastogne and some of the other places over there as well. Everyone is right, the second photo is very 'historical' in feel. I have a 56 Kiev 2A that I am frankenstiening right now. I know that I will be shot when finished with it. The shutter was dead when I got it. So I decided to do a bunch of stuff when I fixed it. Eventually, it will be a dedicated J12 body, but that is all I have to say about that.

I think the problem with the photo threads lately, at least for me has been, time. What with holidays about, the family gatherings, winter weather here in the US and another time consuming activities lurking is about all I have had time for lately. I haven't had a chance to catch up on the past threads and what not. I at least try to look at everyone's photos and give some feedback. Coming from a photojournalist's perspective, there is nothing worse that feeling like nobody watches what you do.

 

[shadowfox]

Rick, nice shots of cool subjects.

People who look down on the Kiev's usually haven't used one yet.

I am very proud of my Kiev 4 kit (3 Jupiters) and its ability to take good pictures.

As for the photo gallery, I just uploaded two recently discovered old shots that I think is suitable for RFF. And I'm finding more in my archives 🙂

 

[darkkavenger]

Hi, yes that makes a '56 2A and a '57 J8 🙂

to Marc-A: I offered my Kiev 2A to my friend Laurence about one year ago. I miss both very much 😀 see on microraion.com 😉

 

[dee]

For the Goddess sake - the Kontax thing was a pun which got out of hand !
Please let it rest 1 Love the pics - I have had similar results from KIEV 4M courtesy of Oleg - I now want my K 2 and K 3 properly cla.

dee

 

[spiderfrank]

Hi Flibble, I ike your shots very much!! I'm the new owner of a Kiev 2a with some light leakage problems (I'm working on these) but I'm absolutely in love with that camera, for the smoothness and the huge rangefinder base, and the rock solid feeling it gives, and... The qualitity of the J8 ! I made only a b&w test roll (Kodak bw400cn), but when there are not light leakages it works really well (look at my thread year in this section).
You said you are disappointed by the colours, can you post something? Thank you, ciao
Franco

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Hello Franco,

I think the colours are not so vibrant due to the age of the Fuji-film. The roll had expired a year earlier. I did not like the photos enough to put them on my website.

If I get round to it today I will scan/upload some of them for you.



Regards,

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Here are two of them. Taken at the Beltring "War & Peace Show" 2007,

The red came out horrible in these pictures. They're from a Roll of Fuji Superia 100. I had taken it out of the freezer
a couple of months earlier for another photoshoot, but never got round to using it until Beltring.

 

[Spyderman]

Mr.Fibble: so your role was Robert Capa right ? 🙂

Nice pictures - especially the first 3.

I have one funny picture from a similar meeting of military history fans here in Slovakia, but it's nowhere as nice as your photos and mine has been postprocessed a lot. (see attachment)

 

[Mr_Flibble]

Well Ondrej, I don't aspire to be like Capa exactly. But I do tend to walk around dressed as a War Correspondent or a GI of the Signal Photo Corps at these events.
I do try to shoot period-looking pictures with period cameras.

Glad you like my pictures, I have a large box of photos that didn't make it to my website though 😉

I always find it surreal, like in your picture to see periodically dressed re-enactors/living-historians walking around between the public to get a beer or a burger.
At a Dutch annual event for all periods of history last year I was standing at a urinal, taking a much needed toilet break; to the left of me there was a man dressed as a Roman Soldier and on the other side there was a Cowboy. Talk about surreal 😉

 

[spiderfrank]

The most surreal thing happened to me was when I was cycling in the hood with my mountain bike and suddenly found, after a bending, two old medioeval chavaliers duelling with their swords !! The were historic figurants making some training, and the scene was really surreal, I thought I went back in the time of one thousand years ... ;-)

Ciao
Franco

ps: thank you for sharing the colour photos, mr Flibble, not so bad as you say, they need just a few post production to reduce the reds on the faces...