КИЇВ and ЮПИТЕР

Hmmm, Ok … so in today’s world the city of Kyiv means something different than the continuation of the Contax II/III camera … though the Kiev camera line was born from the events of another war.

The Arsenal plant in Kyiv had been around for a while making military equipment, After WWII, part of it converted into a civilian company … this is where the stuff from the Zeiss Ikon Dresden plant were moved to.

This is when the Kiev camera was born. The first Kiev 2 camera mostly used the parts taken from Dresden … then eventually they had to start making their own bits … if you look at the long line of this series you can see that they have not changed that much, until the Kiev 5 in 1972.

I have a Contax II and just recently got a Kiev 2a … comparing the internal parts of the two I can see slight differences in material and build, though most of the bits are identical even though this is the second version.

Another thing they also took along with them was the lenses.

The 50mm Sonnar lens was made by KMZ, and like the Kiev camera, they first used German optical elements taken from Dresden. This lens is called the ЮПИТЕР-8 … also called the Jupiter-8 if you can’t read Cyrillic (in 1962 they did release an export version of the lens that is labeled Jupiter in English).

Around 1949 they ran out of German glass, so they had to redesign the optic formula based on of the type of glass that the Soviets used.

I have one that needs a cleaning, and since I did just clean up the original Zeiss version, this should not be that difficult.

Based on info from SovietCams.com site, I have the the PT3570 version … appears to be the last version before the M version. Released by Arsenal in 1957-1959

This lens is similar in disassembly to the Zeiss 50mm that I just serviced. It is not collapsible … I did not take any pictures but I can describe the main points.

There a a grub screw on the side that needs to be loosened. Then you can unscrew the inner part. Watch for the spacer. The rear cell unscrews. Loosen the grub screw on the securing ring … then remove it. Remove the aperture connecting rod. Slide off the collar. To get the front elements out, loosen the three grub screws on the front ring and unscrew it. When you flip it over, all the stuff will fall out.

Zeiss Sonnar … this one needs degreasing.

Well, I think many know that name … Carl Zeiss, and together with his buddies, Ernest and Otto, created the Carl Zeiss AG company … there is lots to read about these three, so I won’t go into details.

I got a hold of a Contax II, which came with a Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2 collapsible lens. This lens was designed by Dr. Ludwig Bertele for the Contax I … he also made the fastest lens, an f/1.5 Sonnar. Ludwig started as an apprentice working at Rodenstock and moved on to work for Ernemann. Here he produced very fast projector lenses … hmm. When he started working under the Zeiss Ikon name he brought forth the Sonnar.

The collapsible Carl Zeiss Jena 50mm f/2 Sonnar is light, simple, and fast !! The standard lenses on the Contax have no focus helix as it is in the body.

When I got the camera in my hands I can see that it needs some servicing. The lens is dirty and the aperture ring is very hard to turn … it appears that there is a dent in the side, and it probably needs a good cleaning of the old grease.

Ok, so lets get into it … from the back.

With spanner, unscrew rear cell with the outter ring.

The inner one is for the rear element.

Slide the lens mount collar down up towards the front of the lens. This will reveal a large screw and right above it is a grub screw.

The grub screw secures the inner column. Loosen the recessed grub screw … or just take it out.

Now you can unscrew the front inner assembly … hold the rear and turn the front.

… be aware of the spacers. one could be an extremely thin brass one

There is a lower ring … set the aperture to widest then scribe a mark on the ring and upper part.

Loosen tiny grub screw on the lower retaining ring and unscrew the ring.

Remove the large screw that couples to the inner aperture ring.

Now you can slide the aperture dial ring off … notice the grease.

To get the front ring off … loosen the grub screws (not the ones on the aperture dial ring)

Unscrew the front ring.

The inner front cell assembly will fall out when inverted.

The aperture is secured with a c-clip. Squeeze the ring together to release it and then nicely push out the aperture section out from the bottom.

Clean up those blades.

Ticking time …

One of the early Japanese shutter manufactures was Seiko.

So back in 1881 Hattori Kintarō opened his watch making shop Hattori Tokei-ten. In 1892 he opened his Seikosha plant to make watches and clocks. By 1901 the company was the largest clock/watch dealer in Japan.

The company primarily made clocks and watches … but in the 1930’s they company started distributing cameras … also during this time the Seikosha plant starting making their own leaf shutters.

The first was the Magna shutter based on the Gauthier Vario shutter. These appeared on many cameras made by Kuribayashi. Then around 1935 they make a Deckel Compur copy called the Seikosha.

The Seikosha Rapid came out in the early 1940’s. It and it’s variants where found in many Japanese cameras … like the Minolta Autocord and the Mamiya Magazine 35.

Hattori Tokei-ten evolved into different companies … like Topcon, Epson and of course Seiko.

Hmm, B+W or colour … why not both?

I have come across an odd 35mm roll film camera … this one has interchangeable film backs.

Yeah, I am familiar with having multiple film backs when I was shooting with a Bronica SQ-A medium format camera … but seeing a 35mm rangefinder camera with this !!!???

After doing some research it appears the Kodak Ektra came first, and then the Adox 300, and then this.

What I have is the Mamiya Magazine-35. I had mentioned this model when I first wrote about Mamiya’s history. This camera was made in 1957 … though like others before, it did not last long maybe a year or two in production only.

The lens name ring is noted with Mamiya-Sekor, that indicates one of their own lens that they started manufactured after WWII at their Setagaya plant … this has a Seikosha shutter in it.

Hmm, so back to the back (Mamiya calls this the body unit). The shutter/optics unit of the camera slides up off of the body unit. The body unit has a dark slide, the is engaged when the unlock gets turned on the bottom, to keep the film from being exposed.

The film counter and rewind knob is part of the body unit, so film can be loaded/unloaded without the shutter/optics unit. Another thing I noted while reading the User Guide is that multiple exposures can be done because of the interchangeable body system.

Hmm, I would have used this to have switching between low and high speed film on the fly. Interchangeable lenses would have been great … this camera has a fixed 50mm f/2.8.

I also wanted to note that around this same time they designed the Mamiyaflex C, which is a TLR with interchangeable lenses. One of the first medium format cameras that I used was the Mamiya C330 … the last of their C series TLRs.

ZI Contax II

Everyone wants a Leica …. well a camera was needed for Zeiss lenses to compete with the Leica I rangefinder 35mm roll film camera. So Zeiss Ikon made the Contax I, it was born in 1932, the same year as the Leica II.

This first version got another version, the Contax II in 1936 after ironing out all the initial faults. Hubert Nerwin was the designer of the Contax II rangefinder. He was the chief designer at Zeiss Ikon in the 30’s, and later in time was the creator of the Kodak 126 film cassette.

The Contax was designed to be technically superior to the Leica cameras. It had a combined viewfinder and rangefinder … bayonet mount, removable back to load film, and high speed metal vertical shutter.

Some things to compare with the Leica … the shutter speed dial does not turn when with the shutter and it is is incorporated with the winding dial. The viewfinder is larger so easier to see through and the back is removable. A focus helix in the body that is used specifically for the standard lenses (that little wheel is used to change focus) … an it used a variable slot shutter so both metal curtains move as one.

After WWII the Soviets moved the Zeiss Ikon Dresden Contax factory (with the tooling and drawings) to the Arsenal factory in Kiev … and thus begat the КИЕВ KIEV. The Kiev 2 and 3 used much of the original stock parts.

The west German Zeiss Ikon Stuttgart plant had to make new Contax cameras from scratch, the IIa and IIIa where released in 1950.

[note that I forgot to put the self timer lever before taking this image]

I got this one in really crusty condition (as you can see there is a lot of wear and corrosion that could not be fixed after I cleaned up). It also noted a broken curtain tape, the lens glass was not clean and aperture was frozen.