Kiev 4 Rangefinder Camera - Not Quite What I Expected!!!

In this video we'll take a look at my 1975 Kiev 4 rangefinder camera. The Kiev was a copy of the German Zeiss Contax camera produced in Kiev, Ukraine. The Kiev cameras are lovely things to look at, and according to many people are higher quality than other Soviet made rangefinders such as the Zorki and FED cameras, but the 3 Zorki's that I have in my collection appear to be better built than my Kiev 4.

Although it might seem like I'm not happy with my Kiev 4, I think I probably just had over inflated expectations having seen many people sing it's praises, and it just didn't quite live up to the hype, but having filmed this video I'm all eager to try it again - I've quadruple checked for light leaks, tweaked the rangefinder yet again and will hopefully head out with it again soon, at least as soon as I've finished some of the 15 or so films that I currently have in other vintage cameras.

Film used: Ilford FP4 shot at box speed (125 ISO)

You can see the follow up video where I investigate the light leaks here:
   • Kiev 4 Rangefinder Camera - Curing Li...  

Here are some links to previous videos that I mentioned in this video:
Industar 61 Lens Test    • The Bright Lights of Dudley, Vintage ...  
Jupiter 8M Lens Test    • Jupiter 8M 50mm f2 - Vintage Soviet L...  

Start 00:00
Contax/Kiev History 00:46
Lenses & Focusing 01:30
Controls 04:48
Viewfinder 08:42
Gallery 1 10:19
Problems 11:31
Gallery 2 13:37
Summary 14:33
Outro 15:13

If you've enjoyed this video and you'd like to help support the channel, you can make a one off, no obligation donation, using the PayPal link below:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/Grump...

Outro Music
"As Yet Untitled"
by GrumpyTim (available to download from GrumpyTim's Bandcamp page)
https://grumpytim.bandcamp.com/

Additional Music
"Where Was I Going"
by GrumpyTim (available to download from GrumpyTim's Bandcamp page)
https://grumpytim.bandcamp.com/


http://www.grumpytim.com