Kiev 4a

[aditya.karunan]

I am new to rangefinder photography and I recently purchased a Kiev 4a and want to know if any of the fellow CSers have experience with it...
We all know russian cameras are not high on quality control, but i want to know how good the final result is. I can get around the quirks for the price I paid...Would love to hear how the camera performs et al..

 

[alternatve]

Hello, I'm a user of the Kiev 4a as well. The quirks I feel there is that the winding is rather stiff and changing the shutter speed can be rather quirky. Hs your camera arrived yet? If not, we can meet up and I can let you handle mine for a while.

Regards,
Samuel

 

[alternatve]

You've gotta get used to the contax hold as well. Index finger over the shutter release button, middle finger over the focusing knob and your last two fingers bent down to avoid blocking the RF window. Other then that, it's a joy to use. I prefer using the focusing knob even though you can turn the lens as well because the infinity lock gets in the way.

Edit
Oh, and try to rotate the advance knob in two strokes. The Kiev has a problem with overlapping frames, and this helps to reduce that.

Regards,
Samuel

 

[aditya.karunan]

Well the camera has arrived and I shot some test shots. Still getting used to the camera but I love the sharpness that I could get in ambient light with this camera. The body is also heavy so the hand hardly shakes while taking a shot. I do admit the Contax way of holding the camera is not user friendly, but I am not complaining. I guess the focus is sharper with the way the viewfinder is placed. I think I might have got the rangefinder disease after this. lol!!

The test shots can be found here

www.flickr.com/photos/life_wasted

Nothing great but I was just testing the sharpness and performance and I wasnt disappointed