Kiev 88

[Dali]

Don't see the point to praise unreliable camera... unless you never use it and consider it as a piece of conversation. OK, all old used cameras are prone to fail at one point but chance to buy junk is close to 100% with poorly designed and built gear.

 

[weasel]

I have an 88cm that has worked fine for me- havent used it a whole lot, but no problems. I bought it because i have a zeiss 50, 80 and 180 that I dearly love. I had a pentacon six that was great till the film counter broke and I cant find anyone to fix it. I also have a kiev 60, that if i load carefully and keep a lens cap on when winding works ok; bad light leaks around the shutter. I tried an arax 60, had the same shutter light leak as the k 60. If I didnt already have a set of good lenses that I really like, I would have not gone this route, but so far so good.

 

[Trower]

I have used an Arax 88 with the Pentacon mount and was very impressed. Actually liked it better than hassy I've used, granted it wasnt in great shape but that Arax rebuilt 88 was very nice and gave very good results!

I plan on getting one of their k60s modded for 645 in the future as I enjoy tlrs for 6x6 more, and my rebuilt Ciro Flex has me satisfied .......for now

 

[Kino]

It's a camera you tend to either love or hate.

I have an 88 with the 45, 65, 80, 120, 150 and 250 lenses and I enjoy using it, despite all its idiosyncrasies.

The leather smells weird, the methodology of operation is byzantine and there can be some irregularities with the shutter at higher speeds, but... who's perfect?

I like most older Russian cameras, because they are so unique; true mechanical cameras with some strange quirks. However, if you operate them correctly, the results can be quite nice.

If you have no tolerance for quirky behaviour, or rely on your camera to make a living, I would suggest you avoid this camera. But, if you can stand a bit of uncertainty and are open to some degree of variation, they can perform very nicely and provide outstanding results.

 

[Dinis Figueira]

It's a camera you tend to either love or hate.

I have an 88 with the 45, 65, 80, 120, 150 and 250 lenses and I enjoy using it, despite all its idiosyncrasies.

The leather smells weird, the methodology of operation is byzantine and there can be some irregularities with the shutter at higher speeds, but... who's perfect?

I like most older Russian cameras, because they are so unique; true mechanical cameras with some strange quirks. However, if you operate them correctly, the results can be quite nice.

If you have no tolerance for quirky behaviour, or rely on your camera to make a living, I would suggest you avoid this camera. But, if you can stand a bit of uncertainty and are open to some degree of variation, they can perform very nicely and provide outstanding results.

I won't rely it to make out a liviing, but since I'm a guy of carrying 1 camera around (2 for traveling), It seems this wouldn't work.
There goes my 6x6 idea