And that proved to be more of an issue than I thought. I had difficulty getting it to
focus, and I wasn't able to find the shutter dial without a Google search. And even then,
it seems that there are no instruction manuals for this model to be found on the web. I
found an instruction manual for the Zeiss Contax IIIa, which seems to
be very different from the Zeiss/Kiev III, which were both almost identical to my camera.
And strangely the Zeiss Contax IIIa has a considerably smaller rangefinder base. This photo
is from the page above, but they make it almost impossible to link to it:
The shutter is set from the wind knob (and yes, it winds in the same direction as every
other 35 mm camera except the Exakta, from left to right). But unlike most other cameras, there's no separate shutter speed
dial: it's under the wind knob, barely visible:
To set the speed, you lift the knob and turn it so that the dot matches the fixed shutter
speed dial below.
And for some reason there's a lock for the lens, keeping focus at infinity. There's also a
wheel near the shutter release for focusing. A whole lot of interesting ideas that somehow
didn't survive.
Apart from that, it's interesting to compare the cameras. It looks bulky, and to an extent
it is. But what surprises me is the size of the lens. It's a Юпитер-8 (Jupiter-8) 5 cm f/2 lens,
basically a rebadged Sonnar, but
it's so small. Here next to the 5 cm f/3.5 Fed on the Fed:
One of the interesting things about this camera is the extremely wide rangefinder base. And
it makes itself felt. Compared to the Fed/Leica, focusing is much more precise. It's
strange that the Zeiss Contax IIIa reduced the base. I wonder why.
And the exposure meter? It seems to work. Here with the cover closed and then open:
But in bright sunlight it goes off the scale. Is there some range switch somewhere? And
how do you interpret the indication? The rewind button has something like a calculator on
it:
“ГОСТ” (GOST) is the old
Soviet film speed measurement system, and clearly there are apertures and shutter speeds
underneath. They can be turned relative to each other, but I don't see any relationship
with the meter readings. None of this is made any easier by the very small markings on a
reflective background.
Still, it's interesting to see the amount of technological innovation that went into this
camera. Yes, it was made in 1957 (the first 2 digits of the serial number show that), but
the design goes back to the 1936 Contax III; the only significant difference is the flash
synchronization (1/25 s!).
