Zavod Arsenal
Kiev 4A
35mm Rangefinder Contax Clone
A Post-War Clone of the Zeiss Ikon Contax II
At the end of World War II Russia claimed and received the manufacturing rights and equipment to produce the Contax II and III cameras as war reparations. Production began in Kiev, Ukraine, about 1949. These cameras were called after their city of manufacture: the Kiev II and Kiev III. Then in 1960 a new model was introduced called the Kiev 4 and Kiev 4A.
You may recall that I bought a Kiev 4 AM some months ago and wrote about it in these pages. I enjoyed that camera and so I bought Kiev 4 A which was an earlier model but basically the same camera. I received it a few weeks ago and it has been an adventure. I am certainly learning a lot about these cameras.
The picture above is not the camera I received. Well, it is but it was not in this condition. The camera that arrived in the mail was dirty. The leather covering was hard and pealing in places and resisted efforts to push it back down. Someone had tried to reglue it and smeared glue everywhere. The shutter sounded as if it was working but when I went to load a dummy roll of film I found that the film sprocket and drive take-up spool were not working. They did not advance the film. So although the camera was solid and complete it was non-functional.
The camera I received, Kiev 4A Ser. No. 7832519, looks basically sound. The faux leather covering had hardened and was turning up at the edges and resisted being pushed back into place.
At the bottom edge of the leather on the camera back it is possible to see the covering separated from the metal of the back. I was able to pull the covering off of the camera body with little effort using my fingers only.
Juptiter 8 M Lens
The Jupiter 8 lens on my Kiev 4A, on the other hand, was really nice. The lens barrel was pristine and the glass appeared to be clear. There is a slight hint of a fungus spider web looking at the rear element. Cleaning may remove it. But, overall, a nice lens.
The Jupiter 8 is a Russian copy of the Zeiss Sonnar 50mm f/2.0 designed in 1929 by Dr. Ludwig Bertele while working for Zeiss Ikon. By the standards of the time it was a very fast lens that was able to deliver excellent quality images.
In the final weeks of the war US forces captured the German town of Jena but in the arrangements made after the war to divide Germany into Zones of Occupation the area of Jena was turned over to Russia as part of its zone. In the same discussions Russian demanded various German assets as war reparations and part of what they demanded was the manufacturing facilities and rights to the Contax camera and the Zeiss lenses. That is an immense over simplification of what happened but from what I read it is correct as far as it goes.
In 1942 the Mechanical Factory of Krasnogorsk was established in a suburb of Moscow to produce optical equipment for the Red Army. After the war the factory began manufacturing cameras or the commercial market and in 1948 began producing FED cameras and eventually the Zorki and Zenit cameras.
The KMZ factory began manufacturng the Zeiss Sonnar calling it the Jupiter 8 for the camera factory in Kiev and other camera manufacturers. It was originally produced in an aluminum barrel with either a Contax or M39 mount. Aluminum is light but it is soft and these lenses were easilty damaged.
Eventually Zavod Arsenal took over manufacturing of their own lenses for their cameras. They manufactured the Jupter 8 M for their Kiev 4 cameras from about 1953 to 1962. You will find this lens marked as a 50mm f/2.0 and a 53mm f/2.0 but apparently they are the same focal length which is close to 53mm.
My lens barrel is not aluminium. It is steel or chrome over brass and feels very solid.
Resurrecting my Kiev 4A
So I had two problems. The first was the covering on the camera and the second was the film drive. I knew of a company in the United States that made camera coverings. I had been to their website several times looking at the materials they had. It was “cameraleather.com” and so I determined to contact them first. I ended up e-mailing with Morgan who said they had a similar covering to the original so I ordered it to see how it would work.
This is the Kiev 4A with its covering removed and the glue removed I touched up the black paint and beacuse the new leather coving will cover any extra paint if was not necessary to be careful where the paint went.
The covering on the removable back came off easily in one piece leaving the camera looking very bare.
Before opening the camera I removed the existing camera covering which came away easily. I then cleaned the body of glue and touched up the paint.
On opening the body of the camera I came upon the problem with the film advance immediately. There is a gear that conects the film winding knob to the film take up spindle and sprocket and the screw holding it in place an on which it roates had backed out of its threaded position and the gear was not engaging with the transport mechanism. I tightened this up and suddenly the film transport was woring.
The rangefinder was also not correctly lined up so I adjusted the optics as well so that the rangefinder was showing infinity when the lens assebly was set to infinity. With this done, all seemed ready to go.
This is as far as I went disassembling the Kiev 4A before I found the film transport problem. I have arranged the parts here on the paper towel I worked on. Always work on a soft paper or cloth surface so that screws you drop do not bounce half way across the room when they hit a hard surface.
This is my Kiev 4A and the new covering from cameraleather.com before I actually applied them to the camera. Notice the pieces are creased to fit the curves of the camera. This makes application easy and helps the adhesive backing hold firmly.
By the time I had the camera working to my satisfaction my new camera leather had arrived from Morgan at cameraleather.com. I was amazed at how precise the cutting of the pieces was and how easily they went on the camera.
The covering is backed with adhesive so you simply strip the paper backing off and apply the pieces. They have already been given the basic creases required to fit accurately and the adhesive seemed totally adequate to the job. I very quickly had what appeared to be a new camera.
In the image at the top of the page you are looking at my camera with its new covering. And here I add some additional pictures so you can see how perfect the fit is and how handsome the camera now looks.
Check out cameraleather.com. They have a range of materials and colors to satisfy every taste. I intend to dress up some of my “shooters” with some bold new colors. These are cameras that are not collector items but ones I use every day to take pictures. I don’t recommend changing the coverings on collector grade cameras. You will ruin the value. But for my “shooters” why not?
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