Recently I've acquired a small collection of Kiev 4 rangefinder cameras. It all
started with the one on the right, a late model Kiev 4M. It came with the
excellent Helios 53mm lens. The Kiev4AM (?) on the right came with the 35mm
Jupiter 12 wide angle lens, and the most recent older Kiev 4M has the older
Jupiter 8 50mm lens. But I've ran into some problems trying to swap lenses back
and forth. The Jupiter 8 50mm mounts on all of the bodies easily. The Helios
53mm will only mount on the later Kiev 4AM and Kiev4M, not on the older Kiev
metered body. The Jupiter 12 wide angle will not mount on the older camera in
the center; the lock never seems to engage. The same wide angle mounts fine on
the later Kiev 4M, but seems to slide around when focused....
If your head is spinning so is mine! My question is if this is typical FSU
"standardization" or am I doing something wrong when mounting the lenses?
And the auxiliary finder only fits the non Hotshoe camera. If I use it on the
later cameras I have to shim up the Hotshoe so it won't slide off. Why do I keep
doing this? The optics are fantastic!<div></div>