Received my $65.00 Contax from Ukraine.

[frank_a._bridges]

The Kiev 4 came from Alex today. I have never used anything like it.

 

Is it a copy of the Contax II (circa 1936) ? If not , which model

contax is it modeled after?

[mskovacs]

Its mostly Contax III (meter) with some IIIA cosmetics added. The meter/rewind side is a IIIA imitation, the latches for the removable back are different, the meter housing looks different.

[kerkko_kehravuo]

Indeed, it is not a copy. (If I did understand your case right.) Russians did steal the whole Contax factory. Not only designs, machines and rawmaterials but workers too. The whole factory. Such is life sometimes with a superpower state.

 

Kerkko K.

[john_shriver]

They also appropriated the tooling and training. But the training wore off, over time. Lost in a haze of Vodka.

[roman_sonnleitner1]

Kerkko,

 

the Russians did not exactly 'steal' the factory - the factory wa part of the reparations after WWII, the Russians had more than every right of taking pretty much anything from Germany they wanted...

 

Roman

[frank_a._bridges]

I love this forum.

[nicolas_douez]

Frank, read what Peter Hennig tells about the Kiev RF cameras :

 

http://www.cameraquest.com/zconrfKiev.htm

[gene m]

<a href="http://westfordcomp.com/classics/kiev41960/"> Some Kiev 4 shots</a>

[mskovacs]

Mine's a '60 too Gene. Good year for Kiev.

[connealy]

Gene, you always get such great results from that Kodak Gold 200. With your example in mind, I recently picked up a roll of it. Haven't been able to bring myself to shoot anything with it yet, though, because I know the local labs will punish it severely.

[gene m]

Genius prevails...genius prevails.

[summitar]

I just received my Kiev 4A yesterday for about the same price. Has Jupiter 8 f2.0 50 mm lens. YOu can find a lot of info including manual at this great site:

 

http://www.photoethnography.com/ClassicCameras/index-frameset.html?Kiev4a.html~mainFrame

[varjag]

<i>Russians did steal the whole Contax factory. Not only designs, machines and rawmaterials but workers too. The whole factory.</i>

 

<p>As it was mentioned, they:

<p>1) Didn't steal it, but recieved as a part of war reparations, per agreement between Britain, Russia and the USA at the Yalta conference. Other allies had their share of trophy as well from their respective occupation sectors;

<p>2) Not the "whole" factory, but only what has remained after the allied carpet-bombing of Dresden.

[jim_mcbride]

The Russians DID steal the Contax tooling AFAIC because the Germans were not party to

the agreement through which the Russians acquired the tooling. At least the Americans

gave back what they took via the Marshall Plan.

[richard_p]

Russian did not steal anything from Germany. The contax was part of war reparation. Of course, Germany was no part of the deal because it's defeated. The old contax product line was bombed into ash. Even the blueprint in the safe stored underground could not survived the bombing. After the war, Carl Zeiss built three new production lines that were eventually moved to Russian. The U.S. took away a lot of intellectual properties (you may call it a steal). In this regard, German people hate the U.S. more than Russian. I believe all the Zeiss prototype lenses/equipment are still lost in the U.S.

 

Richard

[nicolas_douez]

Is the Cold War back onto this forum ?

[pensacolaphoto]

Jim: I heard from Germans that many important [money making] patents were not returned to Germany.

"At least the Americans gave back what they took via the Marshall Plan."

[mskovacs]

No judgements here as Germany was a defeated war enemy:

 

1500 tons of patents were liberated from Germany by the USA. This is unprecedented even today where an entire nation's intellectual property was emptied out. A good number of their brightest scientists and engineers followed.

 

Of course, the most poignant example would be von Braun's rocketry and most of his team, without which, I doubt America would have made it to the moon. To play the opposite side of the argument, he probably would have never made it to the moon without the USA.

 

Did anyone catch last month the release of a new book that suggests that the Germans may have carried out two small scale nuclear weapons tests before the USA? I believe there are groups now looking for evidence of such tests. If true, its remarkable what can be covered-up in the recording of history.

[varjag]

Sorry Jim, but the Yalta agreements are pretty much a part of the international law, recognized by the United Nations.

[jim_mcbride]

The Yalta agreements were (are) a great disgrace and only sanctioned reality. As far as the

U.N. is concerned, that is the same organization which supervised Iraq's so-called "Oil for

Food" program. We've all seen what a sham that has been. The bahavior of the Allies after

World War II is nothing to be proud of for any of the participants, but Russia was the worst

of the bunch. It's too bad that history is written by the victors because truth is often the

greatest victim.

[varjag]

Sorry again Jim, it wasn't Russia who carpet-bombed Dresden or nuked the Japanese citites. It wasn't lining the Germans along the walls after the victory either. Pardon me as I dismiss your opinion as unsubstantiated and bogus attempt at revisionism.

[eugene_scherba]

<p><i>The bahavior of the Allies after World War II is nothing to be proud of for any of the participants</i></p>

<p>Jim, your spelin and your ignoranse is nothin to be proud of aither.</p>

[jim_mcbride]

Alas, I don't do badly for someone who flunked out of the second grade. OK, Amerika is

the great Satan who forced Germany into World War II and then stripped away all German

assets after defeating the Vaterland (actually it was Russia that did all the fighting). Russia

never committed any atrocities; all the bad things were done by the Amerikans. When

Adam and Eve committed Original Sin and were ejected from Paradise, it was actually

Moscow they were thrown out of. It was only an inadvertent omission that Pope John Paul II

failed to canonize Josef Stalin. <snark OFF>

[eugene_scherba]

<p>Jim, you can say whatever you want.</p>

<p>Both of my parents were born in concentration camps in Siberia,

so I know what I speak of. And you better finish your school... They

teach things there, ya know...</p>

[maria_s.]

Dingo ate your baby?