ARSENAL factory is History -- Kiev is dead, long live Kievs

[Q.G.]

[...] But every camera that I have has needed work. This includes Mamiya, Yashica, Graflex, and etc. A point to consider when buying equipment. Steven.

Ah! A recurring theme.

So what?
What someone making a buying decision needs to know is not whether, but why, when and how often.
Look at that, and it will become painfully apparant that not all cameras are created as equal as such a theme could suggest. Far from it.

(Evil spirited minds could also point out that the key to understanding what you write, Snederhiser, lies in the "i" in "every camera that i have".)

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Were soviet cameras ever marketed in the USA during soviet times ??

Oh, goodness me I don't think so! That would give the yanks a leg-up on goings-on! Clunky Zenits were probably smuggled around on espionage junkets. Whatever was the camera that was espied in the James Bond flick, "From Russia with Love"??

Russian cameras seem to have a devoted, almost cult following. The HORIZON panorama cameras are an interesting take on traditional Russian fare and one which has attracted my attention. The design is quite eyecatching.

And how well do Russians themselves photograph? Take a look at olegnovikov.com and find out (curiously though, no Russian cameras under his belt)!

 

[mikebarger]

I have always bought MF camera/lens by buying only those that need service, or factoring in the price of a CLA. This has worked well for me and none have ever been back to the shop (one did take more than I planned while at the shop). Some pieces are going on 15 years.

It's never made sense to me to buy pretty and old for a big price, I like them with some miles, needing service, and ready for another long career of shooting.

Concerning the Kiev's, as several have already stated, the price collapse of quality used MF gear killed their niche.

Mike

 

[MattKing]

Were soviet cameras ever marketed in the USA during soviet times ??

Zenits were marketed in Canada in the 1970s.

Was Russian Vodka marketed in the US during Soviet times?

And what about the "Yugo"?

 

[Poisson Du Jour]

Zenits were marketed in Canada in the 1970s.
[...]

And Australia, too. My chosen, very first SLR (1978) was a Zenit (TL?) that despite me having saved up for it, my father refused to let me own, sending it back to the retailer for a refund. My very first camera was then an Olympus OM1n and Dadda beamed proudly.

 

[lxdude]

The Yugo wasn't Soviet, of course. But it was Commie. They were easy to find parts for. You could just follow one and pick up what you needed.

 

[MattKing]

The Yugo wasn't Soviet, of course. But it was Commie. They were easy to find parts for. You could just follow one and pick up what you needed.

Oops - you are correct. Yugoslavia wasn't part of the Soviet Union.

 

[AgX]

Russian cameras seem to have a devoted, almost cult following. The HORIZON panorama cameras are an interesting take on traditional Russian fare and one which has attracted my attention. The design is quite eyecatching.

KMZ (maker the Zenits and Horizons) designed a camera for type 135 film with a horizontal angle of view of 165°!
Never made it to the market though.

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Also, the Yugo was an eastern-bloc licensed 1980s Fiat, so it was starting off with some pretty bad genes to begin with.

I don't recall if any of the really cheap Russian vodka was available, but I do remember it was a bit of a breakthrough when you could get Stolichnaya in the States in the 80s. Of course all the best Russian vodkas were not for export.

 

[Marc B.]

I don't own a Kiev, and never really considered buying one, but am always sad to hear the demise (end of production) of any film camera, especially in my beloved MF.

 

[moki]

I owned one Kiev 88... for about half a year or 15 rolls of film. I heard of people calling them indestructable russian tanks, but I guess, I got a bad one. A drink to the quality control department, if something like that existed. It was the cheapest entry into medium format SLR photography but also the fastest exit from it. If I saved the money back then, I could buy a nice Mamiya or Bronica set about now...

Still sad, another cameramaker dies, especially one that made such nice lenses for reasonable prices... no more endless supply of cheap 30mm fisheyes in P-Six mount.

 

[BrianL]

It might be built like a Russian tank. When going up against a US or Israeli tank over the past few decades, the Russian tanks were not very successful or reliable.

 

[vlasta]

... largely inadequate manpower issue.