The much maligned Kiev and Complicated Contax predecessors ...

[paul'dee'dowling]

Ex-USSR cameras are much maligned, no less so than Kiev cameras .
This is created through terrible quality control from the mid 50s forward .
Add to this decades of usage without servicing and the back street techs who would mess with cameras which would cost at least a year's wage to keep them useable.

There is a fix however in the form of master engineer Oleg at OK Photocameras-

http://www.okvintagecamera.com/repair.html

Interestingly , Oleg would advise a later Kiev for treatment as he says then older cameras have had too hard a life and that a properly sorted late Kiev works exquisitely.

He can fix a Kiev for $88 plus return postage and revive a Zorki etc to near Leica precision .
He can also fix a cheap dead Contax II/III though III meters are beyond anyone, plus a Leica II/IIIc !!
He even has cells for Kiev 4 !!
There will be some who baulk at some Kiev parts contaminating a Contax , but the alternative may be a non-cost effective £500+.
To me , my new stock Kiev shuttered Contax II , is for more useful [ and less prone to breakdown ] than a box of parts sold as spares !!

It opens up the possibility of that cheap tired Leica IIIc or an expired Contax II being revived for as little as $150 with shipping .

It's even cheaper for a Zorki/Fed etc-
I bought a pair of pretend black Leica II but really wanted to use then.
having heard horror stories of bitsa rebuilds , I had Oleg overhaul both ... although, in the event I found a genuine 1933 Leica II .
He confirmed them to be late Fed I and correct and well remade , but they came back working as well as my Leica IIIc .

dee