View Full Version : Consumerist Thread: Those Beautiful Kievs 4
From the practical point of view I happen to not like the Kiev 4, for example:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=011&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=320107140309&rd=1&rd=1
The meter is more of a liabitlity than anything else. First the range is quite narrow. Then if you want to mount a 35mm finder, parallax increases. Athough it is rumoured that for using the Universal Turret Finder it is better. For mounting a small flash the camera becomes a monster in terms of size. All in all the metered Kievs are heavier than the non-metered ones, and bigger.
After having one that I broke during disassembling a long time ago, I felt a kind of relief and sweared I will never again buy this uncomfortable model.
But I cannot stand the exhuberant beauty of these cameras, I simply cannot stand it. That metering knob, that beautiful selenium cell compound giving the camera a high class look.
And the song of the sirens pulled me back again. So I got one.
I am lost in love, or crazy, or both.
Cheers,
Ruben
xayraa33
06-09-2007, 16:08
the meter on the K-4 is actually very useful addition.
I was a big fan of the 4a until I found out how good and useful the meter is on the 4.
I never looked at a K-4 with disgust again.
I also prefer the rewind " extend a knob" on the 4 to the wheel rewind on the 4a.
Good thing that it takes all kinds to make the world go around; I'm still a meterless Contax/Kiev fan.
outfitter
06-09-2007, 18:15
the meter on the K-4 is actually very useful addition.
I was a big fan of the 4a until I found out how good and useful the meter is on the 4.
I never looked at a K-4 with disgust again.
I also prefer the rewind " extend a knob" on the 4 to the wheel rewind on the 4a.
If you were speaking of the Contax IIIa I would agree: light, trim and sensitive. I have a couple of Kiev 3 that are just useless. My 1958 Kiev 4 is not much better IMO:
1) heavy and clumsy
2) not very sensitive
3) heavily dampened and therefore slow to respond
4) Gost is a pain.
I was tempted to change the top plate but it is such a beauty and so early that I made it into a shelf queen.
Michael
Oh no !, a beauty is to show off shameless and pityless in the streets, bars, night clubs, whenever I feel King Kong....
There is an advantage some times at street shooting, in having a light meter on the top of your camera, you can look at without taking out your hand meter, or without having to peep through the viewfinder to read it.
In comparizon, my modern Sekonic 308, for whatever small it may be held, attracts attention of people asking themselves 'what is this new device, perhaps it is good for me too'
Then if we want to go smaller sized with meters, the alternatives are either highly expensive, or cumbersome (digisix), or selenium again (the Pilot for example).
Cheers,
Ruben
I don't use the meter all that much anyway, so the working, accurate meter on my Kiev 4 is a welcome addition. I also have a Kiev 4a just for those times I prefer the sleek tool that is a meterless camera. I don't really use one more than the other, but the silly thing is I tend to carry my handheld meter when I carry the 4a, which kind of defeats the purpose in my eyes.
xayraa33
06-10-2007, 06:31
the meter on the Kiev 4 is a copy of the meter on the Contax IIIa,it is small and I find this Arsenal made electrical product to be very reliable.
I have found more non working meters on Contax IIIa(s) than on the Kiev 4(s).
Gost is 90% of ISO, not hard to remember and for slow film it hardly matters.
I think I will try to access the meter top and put there a different paper instead of the signs 2, and 4 above the diamond. I will put +1 and +2 meaning "open 1 stop", "open 2 stops", as it is used nowadays.
Upon testing I would like to add -1 and -2.
The limited range of the meter may suit me these days in which I am pursuing using the hand meter less and less. Let's see.
Now xayraa33 is adding something new to me to be comfirmed here: that "the meter on the Kiev 4 is a copy of the meter on the Contax IIIa". I vaguely remember a contrary assertion, that the Soviet meter is a measurable simplification of the Contax one. Anyway they work, and that's the important thing.
Finally I already started to dream about some selective black painting...
Cheers,
Ruben
outfitter
06-10-2007, 07:46
the meter on the Kiev 4 is a copy of the meter on the Contax IIIa,it is small and I find this Arsenal made electrical product to be very reliable.
I have found more non working meters on Contax IIIa(s) than on the Kiev 4(s).
Gost is 90% of ISO, not hard to remember and for slow film it hardly matters.
The meter housing is a copy of the Contax IIIa but the body is still the Contax II format and so bulk and lack of balance result. My Contax IIIa was rebuilt with a new cell and is sensitive enough to read for ASA400 film indoors at night; they all share a problem of an overly wide coverage and must be carefully aimed to avoid taking in too much sky. In any event my opinions are formed by the fact that I'm too old to break the habit of a lifetime of carrying a hand held meter even with a modern advance matrix TTL meter system and frequently using neither as I eyeball the exposure.
Michael
Good thing that it takes all kinds to make the world go around; I'm still a meterless Contax/Kiev fan.
Yes but the moment comes you cannot stand the temptation of beauty any more...
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. :)
Yes but the moment comes you cannot stand the temptation of beauty any more...
I little thought that I should live to see such wanton hedonism stalking our beloved FSU forum. The days of an occasional comradely arm about the broad shoulders of a fellow proletarian are clearly long past. This is more like the Cafe Royal in the days of Oscar Wilde than the last plucky bastion of Socialist Realism. And Ruben, our own Dear Ruben, turning his back on the oily workbench to become the Joris-Karl Huysmans of our photographic decadence!
As Kirov used to say, "the Formalists have taken over the asylum".
Personally I like the metered Kievs. The "unreliable" meters of many (at least of later models) are, I suspect, perfectly servicable and simply need a little adjustment, which is simply done by removing the meter dial and shifting the electrical contact.
Cheers, Ian :)
zhang xk
06-10-2007, 17:08
Yes but the moment comes you cannot stand the temptation of beauty any more...
Dear Comrade Ruben,
A Kiev 4 got me hooked to Soviet gears. My very 1st Russian camera is a mint 1965 Kiev 4.
All Chinese top leaders including Mao got a Kiev 4 as a state gift back in the 1950's. President Liu Shaoqi's wife donated his Kiev 4 to a museum. You didn't look closely at these beauties before.:D
zhang xk
06-11-2007, 17:19
I wish Comrade Ruben is not annoyed for some reason. To support his view, I took a picture of one of the early Kiev 4s.:D It looks as beautiful as any other top brand rangefinder cameras. It compares well to the re-issued Nikon S3 made some 30 years later.:cool:
And it is smooth and quiet, and it takes sharp pictures.
Cheers,
Zhang
Thank you, Comrade, for this fine visual contribution. No I wasn't annoyed at all, but speechless. :D and of course I had a condenser frying in my kitchen.
Cheers,
Ruben
zhang xk
06-12-2007, 02:33
Thank you, Comrade, for this fine visual contribution. No I wasn't annoyed at all, but speechless. :D and of course I had a condenser frying in my kitchen.
Cheers,
Ruben
So I am relieved. I read your other thread about this condenser. I have a parts Kiev 4. Could you show me what exactly this part is? I will post an image of the rangefinder FYI. Some small parts for Kiev rangefinder sub-system are not alway interchangeable. I just fixed a jamed 1973 Kiev 4 shutter, and I am amused to find out the cause. :D This Kiev 4 fired O.K at 1/125 and above but jammed at 1/25 or below. Now it is a fine and almost new Kiev 4.
Kind regards
Zhang
Zhang
it is just that small dismountable square you see at the left, cubic in fact. you see once you dismounted the top casting, next to the small window for the eye. It is fixed to the basis by a small arm with two big head screws.
Cheers,
Ruben
lets hear a bit of old Chinese wisdom.
TVphotog
06-12-2007, 09:52
All this talk of the 'beauty' of the Kiev 4 has me wondering. I actually have a kiev 3/4. It looks like the 4, but was made in '61 so it is a 3 right? Anyway, I might just use this along with the 2A for the project. I just need to pick up a spare from Alex-photo for parts.
By shape, the Kievs 3 have tall rewinding knobs against the flat one of the 4.
By year of making I don't thing Kievs 3 were produced beyond 1958.
And of course, the Kiev 4 has flash sych.
But it allways will be fun to see a Kiev three quarters (3/4) :D Hopefully this is not what we'll have by the end of the Kiev Project.
I would say that the main issue for a metered Kiev is wether the meter responds to light.
Cheers Ken,
Ruben
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