Polycarbonate?
When restoring my Contax II I noted that it is comprised of six materials: silk, leather, steel, brass, aluminum alloy, glass. No plastic.
The Kiev 4 has phenolic on the flash synch contact mount, plastic wire insulation, iron, selenium, plastic, cardboard all in the meter. No silk, the Kiev shutter ribbons are acetate, and no leather in the curtain edge ribbons - the body covering is anyone's guess, I'm pretty sure mine ('59) is leather.Surprisingly I think that those are the same materials present in my Kiev 4.
The Kiev 4 has phenolic on the flash synch contact mount, plastic wire insulation, iron, selenium, plastic, cardboard all in the meter. No silk, the Kiev shutter ribbons are acetate, and no leather in the curtain edge ribbons - the body covering is anyone's guess, I'm pretty sure mine ('59) is leather.
I wasn't trying to say there weren't a few other things included as well.The Kiev 4 has phenolic on the flash synch contact mount, plastic wire insulation, iron, selenium, plastic, cardboard all in the meter. No silk, the Kiev shutter ribbons are acetate, and no leather in the curtain edge ribbons - the body covering is anyone's guess, I'm pretty sure mine ('59) is leather.
The silk in the Contaxes came from Japan also. I'm not sure who caught the whales for the lubricating oil.I wasn't trying to say there weren't a few other things included as well.
And besides, my Kiev does indeed have silk. I know because I put it in there myself. It was all I had and works just as well as the acetate.
And my silk was made in Japan. So I have a Russian camera, originally designed and built in Germany, using Japanese parts. Its multi cultural!
You gotta love photography.
I guess I must be missing your point.The silk in the Contaxes came from Japan also. I'm not sure who caught the whales for the lubricating oil.
Last I knew, Kiev is in the Ukraine
Technically, the Kievs 2 and 3 were German cameras, made on German equipment by German trained technicians in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Kiev 4 and 4a had different baseplates, baseplate latches, and the meter and calculator dial were changed too - the rewind knob on the 4 had a film reminder incorporated. The tripod socket was moved from the baseplate to the body casting, and the stabiliser foot was deleted. Flas synch arrived on the 2a and 3a. So no, not Russian, no longer strictly German either - Ukranian, as it was never made in Russia.I guess I must be missing your point.
You are now saying that the Kiev 4 was NOT a Russian camera?
Or are we picking nits for the fun of it.
Respectfully, I have to disagree. "Technically", since all the German equipment for making the Contax II camera was taken as war reparations by Russia, not the Ukraine, it belonged to Russia.
And constructed, as I pointed out, in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic under the direction of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. NOT Russia. The entity responsible for production of all FSU cameras was the U.S.S.R..It was not taken by Russia. It was taken by the Soviet Union.
If you tell a Ukranian it is a Russian camera, do it from a distance. Worse than calling a Scotsman British.Whatever. Call it what you want. The Ukraine had been a State of Russia since the late 1700s. Now that they are independent (with the obvious exception of the Crimea of course) everyone is in a big rush to change all the names. That's fine.
You call your Kiev a Ukrainian camera and I'll call mine a Russian camera.
Of course by now it is probably a European Union camera.
Camera manufacturers having been producing plastic body cameras (bakelite) since the 1930's. I certainly don't have an issue with plastic cameras. As long as the plastic doesn't crack or deform with normal usage, I welcome it.I think that, with very few exceptions, film cameras went off the rails with the introduction of plastic, then electronics, then autofocus.
Half the Scotsmen would be happy to be called British, in fact they'd insist upon it. The other half would be less than pleased, and as P. G. Wodehouse noted “It has never been hard to tell the difference between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.” For the full incendiary effect from both sides you'd have to call one English.If you tell a Ukranian it is a Russian camera, do it from a distance. Worse than calling a Scotsman British.
Yes, "English". I knew that...Half the Scotsmen would be happy to be called British, in fact they'd insist upon it. The other half would be less than pleased, and as P. G. Wodehouse noted “It has never been hard to tell the difference between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.” For the full incendiary effect from both sides you'd have to call one English.
Ukraine (then the Ukraine) was part of the USSR (CCCP) when the Kiev camera was manufactured from German drawings and machinery. In its early years it was made by German former Contax employees, as I'm sure you know. It was even labelled "Contax". Whether the build qualities were German or Ukrainian, and how those differed from Russian ones, is hard to say. Like Japanese cameras, Russian gear was a knock off of other people's stuff. Unlike Japanese equipment, Soviet stuff never developed an R&D culture of its own. Looking down today's end of the telescope, this isn't always a bad thing.
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