Vintage Soviet Union USSR Kiev Ukraine 35mm Rangefinder Photo Film Camera W Case

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The Kiev rangefinder cameras are derivatives of the pre-WW2 Contax rangefinder bodies, and were made after the War by the Zavod Arsenal factory in Kiev, Ukraine. Kiev rangefinders were produced from 1947 until 1986, which means more than 50 years of production of the basic Contax rangefinder design and over 1 million cameras were sold worldwide.

Soviet forces took the Zeiss Ikon factory in Dresden as war reparations and "relocated" equipment and personnel from the Germany into Kiev, Ukraine. In Kiev, the Zeiss Ikon's Contax production line was set up again in the Zavod Arsenal facility and quickly started production under the Kiev brand name (1947) . Early models (Kiev 2) are said to have been made from original Zeiss Ikon stock the Soviets had taken with them by German technicians. There are reports of models with the original Contax nameplate behind the new Kiev shield.

Kiev cameras, just like Contax before them, were considered of higher quality than Zorki/FED and were preferred by Soviet officials and professional journalists.

One of the advantages of the Kiev is the use of the Contax long rangefinder base: 9 cm, which allows for very accurate focusing even at very shallow apertures. This feature combined with a clear depth-of-field scale on the lens, and excellent optics is used to create a clear isolation of the subject from the background. Also in the Kiev, just like to Contax before them, the viewfinder and rangefinder are combined in one large bright viewfinder, Leica did not combine the two until the Leica M3 in 1954.

Quality of the cameras was maintained into the 1960s, but saw a drop in the 1970s due to simplification and lack of quality control in parts and assembly. However, the cameras keep working within tolerance due to the excellent design of Zeiss team almost 50 years before the last camera left the production line.

The Kiev II, is a copy of the prewar Contax II and the Kiev III was a copy of the Contax III, easily recognizable because of the light meter perched on top of the body. Neither of these cameras was synchronized for flash, although many were later modified. The Kiev IIa and IIIa solved this problem.

Further refinements resulted in the Kiev 4 and 4A (metered and non metered) models, which were produced from the 1950s until the 1980s with several variations and modifications. The last variants, the Kiev 4AM and 4M, had such modern conveniences as a hot shoe and real rewind crank.

There was a short-lived Kiev 5 model that was only produced from 1968 to 1973 and was incompatible with earlier Kiev/Contax lenses. It offered a large and bright finder, with frameline for the standard 50mm lens, an integrated lightmeter, and film advance by a lever. This effort to modernize the line failed, and these cameras are rare today.

Weight of the camera: 756g

Weight of the case with camera: 1034g

ITEM NO. op230