The canmera shown seems to have been misused to cause that many problems. I have had Zenith 80 since 1968 and it has no problems whatsoever. I have adapted 2 |Hassel backs to fit with no problem. It works flawlessly. You just have to treat her thing properly. If you just sling it into a bag and hump it around its going to suffer (mostcameras sooner or later will). Mine came with a solid leather should strap case...if you have a case for it..USE IT.
I once had a Kiev 80 - and only had problems. The film cassette was not light-tight and the transport mechanism only transported the film to the next frame in 70% of all cases. I also had the same problem as you with attaching the film back securely. I soon sold it again and got a Rollei 6006 as a very reliable replacement.
The Kiev 88 has a fantastic quality 45-degree prism. I actually think it's better than the Hasselblad finders. You can still buy the metered prism brand new from Arax and Hartblei. In fact you can still buy these cameras new from Hartblei. I've owned one and the new ones are of fantastic quality, likely because they aren't subject to the low standards of the USSR. I would avoid drawing conclusions from any of the older copies. I expect if you bought a new one it would last a lifetime. In my case I use the 88's metered prism with an adapter on my Mamiya C220. WLFs bother my neck these days. I would have kept the 88, but the C220 does the same job with a much more useful MFD. Great stuff sir!
I did not know that Hartblei still sold these new. Thank you and I wish I has because this busted old guy was only $20 less than a new one... I may revisit this in the future with a good one.
When I visited either website, cameras were not available and only a few lenses were available. The 30 mm fisheye was listed on the Arax website as rebuilt used lenses.
you found a deep rabbit hole. don't fall in. I still keep a k88 and k60 in the rotation. In the past that 1/30th synch speed would mean i grab a bronica. today it just means i use a battery powered cob led and shoot thru umbrella with it. I have to much fun combining old and new tech.
I'm glad I went with the Kiev 60 back then, such a reliable camera - this one sounds like my worst nightmare - with my nervousness during shoots I would've ruined it on it's first day, and sadly it's bad rep went over to the Kiev 60 too, which didn't deserve it at all and is much better than it's GDR sister, the Pentacon 6. The Hasselbladsky is still a good looker though, for style points alone I would've chosen this one, or rather the 88 (which still has most of the quirks).
There is something to say about the Kodak browny box. But it was easy, simple and it worked. This seems like a box of complications. It’s gorgeous though.
I have one of the Kiev models. It worked great at first, I ran a few rolls of expired Ektachrome through it, guessing exposure, and they turned out great. Now though, every 3 frames, the shutter seizes, and one film back is jammed..
@@DavidHancock Yeah they are hard to take apart, I couldn't figure it out. I reached out to Arax who does CLA them, but of course they want me to send it in, won't give me any info on self repair, and it's expensive to have done..
@@ShanesshiitYou Tube has videos . Exaquir has videos of the mechanism, Aleksandr Usovich posted a CLA video, a video by Anthony P in Russian shows the internal mechanism and Arax posted a video on repair.
I owned a similar era Salyut, and when it actually worked right it took excellent images, however it always had little foibles that I finally tracked down to a misaligned film back causing the safety to not fully extend. The shutter would fire but the lens stop down would not go until after the exposure was made, or the shutter would have speed issues. I figured this out after having several rolls that are way over exposed, and I had to rebuild a film back for it. That said the Kiev 88 is a much better camera in terms of reliability, especially the later ones. I’ve never had these sort of issues with my Kiev 88, though I’m unsure if I’m just lucky.
It's highly likely I have a bad copy or one that was really abused. I understand that back in the day the USSR-made camera gear had more quality variability than the PRC-made camera gear today.
Ahahaha, David you did great with your Ukrainian 😂 Latin script doesn't do any good for the legibility of the slavic languages, as I discovered myself whe trying to learn Polish. Salutations from Kyiv!
The canmera shown seems to have been misused to cause that many problems. I have had Zenith 80 since 1968 and it has no problems whatsoever. I have adapted 2 |Hassel backs to fit with no problem. It works flawlessly. You just have to treat her thing properly. If you just sling it into a bag and hump it around its going to suffer (mostcameras sooner or later will). Mine came with a solid leather should strap case...if you have a case for it..USE IT.
I totally believe this camera was abused at some point. It was in awful condition.
I once had a Kiev 80 - and only had problems. The film cassette was not light-tight and the transport mechanism only transported the film to the next frame in 70% of all cases. I also had the same problem as you with attaching the film back securely. I soon sold it again and got a Rollei 6006 as a very reliable replacement.
Thank you and yeah, the Rollei would be a huge step up.
😁
Pryvit vid pidpysnykiv )))
Great job!
Дякую тобі!
The Kiev 88 has a fantastic quality 45-degree prism. I actually think it's better than the Hasselblad finders.
You can still buy the metered prism brand new from Arax and Hartblei. In fact you can still buy these cameras new from Hartblei. I've owned one and the new ones are of fantastic quality, likely because they aren't subject to the low standards of the USSR. I would avoid drawing conclusions from any of the older copies. I expect if you bought a new one it would last a lifetime.
In my case I use the 88's metered prism with an adapter on my Mamiya C220. WLFs bother my neck these days.
I would have kept the 88, but the C220 does the same job with a much more useful MFD.
Great stuff sir!
I did not know that Hartblei still sold these new. Thank you and I wish I has because this busted old guy was only $20 less than a new one... I may revisit this in the future with a good one.
Is Arax still a thing? I thought they stopped their business when the invasion happened.
When I visited either website, cameras were not available and only a few lenses were available. The 30 mm fisheye was listed on the Arax website as rebuilt used lenses.
Thank you for posting the videos.
A nice comparison vs. my used Kiev 88.
you found a deep rabbit hole. don't fall in.
I still keep a k88 and k60 in the rotation. In the past that 1/30th synch speed would mean i grab a bronica. today it just means i use a battery powered cob led and shoot thru umbrella with it. I have to much fun combining old and new tech.
I know. I need to keep focused on my Bronica gear, though, since it's working very well and I have a bunch of Bronica Nikkor lenses to review. :D
I'm glad I went with the Kiev 60 back then, such a reliable camera - this one sounds like my worst nightmare - with my nervousness during shoots I would've ruined it on it's first day, and sadly it's bad rep went over to the Kiev 60 too, which didn't deserve it at all and is much better than it's GDR sister, the Pentacon 6. The Hasselbladsky is still a good looker though, for style points alone I would've chosen this one, or rather the 88 (which still has most of the quirks).
There is something to say about the Kodak browny box. But it was easy, simple and it worked.
This seems like a box of complications.
It’s gorgeous though.
I concur, on both points.
I have one of the Kiev models. It worked great at first, I ran a few rolls of expired Ektachrome through it, guessing exposure, and they turned out great. Now though, every 3 frames, the shutter seizes, and one film back is jammed..
Unfortunately, that's not an uncommon story. I wish I knew how to fix it.
@@DavidHancock Yeah they are hard to take apart, I couldn't figure it out. I reached out to Arax who does CLA them, but of course they want me to send it in, won't give me any info on self repair, and it's expensive to have done..
@@ShanesshiitYou Tube has videos . Exaquir has videos of the mechanism, Aleksandr Usovich posted a CLA video, a video by Anthony P in Russian shows the internal mechanism and Arax posted a video on repair.
@@robertcuny934 thanks, I will have to look it up again
Hope u do one on the kiev 60.
If I get my hands on one, I definitely will.
@@DavidHancock cool man!
I owned a similar era Salyut, and when it actually worked right it took excellent images, however it always had little foibles that I finally tracked down to a misaligned film back causing the safety to not fully extend. The shutter would fire but the lens stop down would not go until after the exposure was made, or the shutter would have speed issues. I figured this out after having several rolls that are way over exposed, and I had to rebuild a film back for it.
That said the Kiev 88 is a much better camera in terms of reliability, especially the later ones. I’ve never had these sort of issues with my Kiev 88, though I’m unsure if I’m just lucky.
It's highly likely I have a bad copy or one that was really abused. I understand that back in the day the USSR-made camera gear had more quality variability than the PRC-made camera gear today.
Ahahaha, David you did great with your Ukrainian 😂
Latin script doesn't do any good for the legibility of the slavic languages, as I discovered myself whe trying to learn Polish.
Salutations from Kyiv!
Thank you, Androoy! :D