wide angles on Kiev/Contax

The other clear difference is in the location of the frame counter. On the pre-war II it is on the top deck in its own window beside the film advance knob. On the later IIa, it is integrated concentric to the film advance knob.

A CLA for this camera runs $225 with Henry Scherer but he completely dismantles the camera and rebuilds it. This one is going there in a few months. I have a space on the waiting list reserved for it.
 
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FrankS said:
The other clear difference is in the location of the frame counter. On the pre-war II it is on the top deck in its own window beside the film advance knob. On the later IIa, it is integrated concentric to the film advance knob.

A CLA for this camera runs $225 with Henry Scherer but he completely dismantles the camera and rebuilds it. This one is going there in a few months. I have a space on the waiting list reserved for it.
Click to expand...

That's not a bad price, Frank, considering that your camera will be just like a new one.
I found this 1954 advertisement in Popular Photography from Dowlings, 175 Fifth Ave. NY, NY (Flatiron Building).
$367 for a new Contax IIa with a f/1.5 Sonnar in 1954 would be $2,640 in today's dollars. A Contax IIIa would be an additional $324. I'm using a .139 conversion factor:
http://oregonstate.edu/Dept/pol_sci/fac/sahr/cv2005.pdf
 
Neat advertisement, R.J. Thanks for posting it. I think these cameras are undervalued and under appreciated these days, but I don't want to give away that secret.
 
JoeFriday said:
d-avenger, it's pretty simple to tell at a glance whether it's pre-war (II) or post-war (IIa).. at least once you figure out a few things.. the RF window used to be way over to the left, right under the film advance knob.. on Frank's you can see that it's been moved toward the center slightly and is now over the self-timer knob.. also, the pre-war model had a 'tripod foot' on the bottom that stuck out a bit under the lens mount

beyond that, the IIa is slightly smaller, but that's not obvious unless you had them side by side
Click to expand...

Any idea if this applies also to Kiev cameras ? I'm pretty sure mine is a Kiev-II but I lack the proper elements to compare with other series. It's without the top lightmeter, though, and was produced in 1956.

body serial number 567709 / jupiter-8 : 5613084

:D
I love how it feels... I might get a bit pornographic... but I love to caress it and hold it in my hands *blushes*
 
Darkavenger, nope, you can't compare the newer Kievs to post-war Contaxes - they are just modified copies of the pre-war contax models.

A bit of history: after WW II, the SOviet Union got the Contax machinery (as well as a lot of other stuff from Zeiss Ikon) as war reparations, and shipped them from what was now Eastern Germany to the motherland (along with lots of left-over parts for cameras - the first Kievs were made from German made Contax left-over parts; a lot of technicians also came, more, or rather less willingly, along to train the Russian workers). WIth these machines the started production of the pre-war Contax, as Kiev, and over the course of the years, the Kiev was revised and modernized a bit (the Kiev 4AM and 5 being the most modern versions).
The newer Contax factory was set up in Western Germany (remember, the old ones were built in the East, which was now Soviet-controlled), and since the Soviets had taken all the machinery, moulds, plans, etc., the post-war Contax (with an 'a' behind the number) were different from the original ones, with the modifications mentioned by JoeFriday.

Roman
 
Thank you Roman. Yes, I noticed this, especially with mount-compatibility problems ... and I think I've more and more to learn, especially why do I see Carl-Zeiss Jena lenses sold on western contaxes and stuff like this. I should go cook and prepare my lunch now!

But any hint if my Kiev is a II or a 4 ? I bought it with its original manual, in russian... at least it seems so, it was a full package when I bought it at this renowned photography shop in Prague.

Thanks for the precisions :)
 
RJBender said:
That's not a bad price, Frank, considering that your camera will be just like a new one.
I found this 1954 advertisement in Popular Photography from Dowlings, 175 Fifth Ave. NY, NY (Flatiron Building).
$367 for a new Contax IIa with a f/1.5 Sonnar in 1954 would be $2,640 in today's dollars. A Contax IIIa would be an additional $324. I'm using a .139 conversion factor:
http://oregonstate.edu/Dept/pol_sci/fac/sahr/cv2005.pdf
Click to expand...


I just noticed that the camera in that 1954 ad for a IIA is actually a prewar model.

R.J.
 
darkavenger - with a foot and flash synch, this is a Kiev 2A. Your Jupiter-8 looks like a consistent match with red Russian T coating mark and the fact that its not the later Jupiter-8M. Same year for serial numbers? If so, they probably sold together.
 
Indeed that is a Contax II in the ad. IIA has the rangefinder window shifted under the focus wheel.

See here for some good shots of a Contax II and a Contax IIIA (same as IIA but with uncoupled selenium meter). Nico did a super job with these cameras. Note the prewar Biogon 35/2.8 on the Contax II. It has a few features that stand-out compared to the fakes you see derived from the Jupiter-12, most prominently a narrower focus ring and smaller release latch.

http://nicolas.douez.free.fr/classic_cameras1.htm
 
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Thank you mike, after many crosscheckings it appears clearly that mine is a Kiev-IIa from 1956, with holding foot and flash sync. Body and lens are from 1956 and seem to have the same "patine" (uniform look, no color/use differences) and of course the J-8 is coated with the russian T mark (currently a P .. i wonder if anyone could explain me the full word that they refered for the "P")

:)
 
P = popular

It was a less expensive version of the then current Canon VI rangefinders. Just like the Leica M2 was a reduced cost version of the M3 (along with viewfinder frame changes.)
 
передавать? (online translater split this out for transmit which I believe is loosely what the German T is based on, transmittance)

That's Kiev 2A (no Roman numeral except for the first Kiev model, the most faithful Contax II copy)

If you could post a photo of the bottom of the swing out foot in the closed position, I would really appreciate that. I have a Contax II coming from a friend with a different looking foot that I suspect may have come from an early Kiev.
 
The cyrillic "P" on a lens stands for "Prosvetlennyi" (coated).
 
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