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Kiev 30 – Spy the grain
The Kiev 30 is a camera that inspires day dreams of cloak and dagger spy games. It belongs to the subminiature class of cameras, which are specifically designed to be as small as possible. In reality, if they were ever used for international espionage they had to be small to stay discreet. You’re not going to get away with breaking into an office, photographing secret documents and escaping a gun fight with a medium or large format camera. To prove the point, there is a version of the Kiev 30 branded the John Player, as in the cigarette brand John Player Special. This particular and rare version is inserted into…
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Kiev 4 – The Non-Clone
The Kiev 4 is a beautiful, silent and graceful camera. It has a classic rangefinder design which just makes you want to pick it up and start shooting with it. Paired up with the well regarded Jupiter 8M Contax mount lens, it forms a formidable team. Especially with a very accurate focus, achieved through one of the widest available rangefinder bases, on paper it should be a dream to use. It is unfair to call it a clone, as it was manufactured using a significant number of tools and machines the Contax originals were made with. That is because it was built with plans and equipment taken from the Carl…
