>>3421295I really like Kievs, they're Contax copies.
But they didn't have to have to reverse-engineer anything, they had the blueprints+german technicians as war reparations, so they're built to original spec with no glaring flaws. (Build quality is variable as all soviet cameras, but in this case at least you know the spec is right and not some mismatch of parts).
What I like about the cameras, is the shutter sound and the unbreakable rangefinder mechanism.
The shutter sound is pretty unique, a soft rolling brass sound, because it's made of thick brass blades forming a sort of rolling window shutter.
The rangefinder will never go out of alignment unless you break it. The slow speeds will work. If the shutter stops working, it fails completely, not with slow speeds starting slugging etc. So if the shutter works, the slow speeds will work also.
The camera in general feels solid and the only thing that you might not like in its build is the leatherette, but that's easily replaceable with genuine leather.
What I don't like about the camera is the small viewfinder with no framelines. If you're used to modern RFs, it'll look small and dark. If you compare it with the prewar cameras, it's much better than the likes of Leica IIIf etc.
Rangefinder contrast is great and the baselength enormous, since the rf window is really far to the side of the body. But you have to learn to hold it in a way that your finger doesn't cover the rf window.
Then there's the lenses. Some of my favourite lenses, and they're really cheap because
1. the focusing helicoid is built into the camera and not the lens (for the normal lenses)
2. they're almost unadaptable to any digital camera, including mirrorless, so the digifags can't jack up their price. (They require a $250 adapter that replicates the mount+helicoid, and the wides go so far deep in the camera, that they look like shit on digital)
The lenses are very small, because of that. The f/1.5 Sonnars are tiny for their speed.
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