Like many photographer using vintage cameras, I do have the urge to take one that has been sitting on the shelf for a white. Last week I picked up my 1953 Kiev camera and decided to use it again during the holidays.
The Kiev 3A has a special place in my collection – it was my first “real” camera after a Kodak Brownie. I was 8 years old and my mother believed that I had a photographer’s eye, so she got me the venerable Kiev rangefinder as a Christmas gift. And I learned B&W photography through the camera and its 1952 50mm Jupiter 8 f2 lens. Of course I did not have a darkroom then, so my father, a dentist, made an agreement with the neighborhood photography shop owner to discount dental work fees for him and his wife if he developed and printed my “masterpieces” for free. So I own to my parents the discovery and support of my lifelong passion for the arts.
Over the next six decades, I kept the Kiev, used it, and learned how a photographer needs to become one with his camera to capture human attitudes in the streets of cities around the world. Eventually, the cameras that I traveled with were the 1953 Kiev 3A, the 1954 Leica IIIF, the 1954 Canon L3 rangefinder, and the 1969 Nikon F Photomic. My collection has quadrupled since, but I still have and use my original cameras.
A word about the history of the Kiev rangefinder camera.
The Kiev camera has a significant history associated with WWII. Indeed, post-WWII, the Soviet Union took Zeiss Ikon’s toolings and designs from Dresden to the Arsenal factory in Kiev, today’s Kyiv. There, they started manufacturing clones of the venerable Contax II and III using the original Zeiss Ikon materials. The Contax camera was now re-badged as Kiev and the tools, glass, casing and other materials necessary its production lasted till 1960. During that period two exact clones of the Contax III were produced – the Kiev 3 and the Kiev 3A, the only difference being that the latter had an added post for flash synchronisation.
So, the cameras and lens made at the Arsenal factory in Kiev were all original German Zeiss Ikon parts, hence for professional photographer and then collectors those Kiev cameras became legendary with the added historical content. When the parts and tools were unavailable, Arsenal factory produced Soviet copies of the cameras and lenses which did not achieve the excellence or reliability of the German Contax. So, the most legendary Kiev cameras and lenses are those made in the 1950s.
My Kiev camera has an additional attractiveness – the template atop the light meter (which still remains amazingly accurate!) is engraved with an “A” and a serial number of 531314, indicating that it is a Kiev 3A made in 1953. However, my camera does not have flash synchronization (no port) and historical facts are that the Kiev 3A production started in 1954 and ended in 1959, while the Kiev 3 production period was 1948-1955. Therefore, what I have is a transitional period camera, engraved as 3A but really it is a 3.
Collectors love these kind of history, but for me as a user, Shakespeare was right “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” as the cameras are original Contax.
… So, yesterday I took the Kiev with its 50mm Jupiter 8 and a 1970s Soviet Jupiter 11 f4 that I had not used before. I do have the 35mm Jupiter 1970s 12 and a 1955 85 mm Jupiter 8 f2 lenses as well, which were the only original lenses made for the Kiev. Later a Helios-103 53mm f1.8 lens was made but I did not like its more “modern” character.
Here is my camera and the vintage lenses made for this 35mm rangefinder camera
Its engraved production date and model
The bottom view. Note the useful "Contax foot" a folding contraption that stabilises the camera when put down and averts any scratching of the bottom plate. It is a unique feature of the vintage Contax camera and especially useful when taking a timer shot .
That is a handy guide for choosing the combination of shutter speeds and lens aperture, in Cyrillic! Surely a historic artifact.
How did the 50mm Jupiter 8 and 135mm Jupiter 11 do during the downtown Prescott Light Parade?
Prescott is known as Arizona’s Christmas Town as celebrations, parades, and music and art festivals span the entire month of December.
The Light Parade was on a sunny and relatively warm day, and the slow film I was using was perfect for the using relatively slow vintage lenses.
A. Using the 1952 Jupiter 8 f2 lens: I have used this lens countless times in the 1970s so I knew what to expect. I just did not know if the lens was still performing well after a long respite on the shelf.
A young girl wearing a Sunday dress was next to a tree and the shade of the trees mixed capriciously with the sunny spots on the ground. To test the lens, I used an opening of f8 and a shutter speed of 1/125th second.
The photo is shown atop this entry. I did some burning under the enlarger to darken the background and let the white dress in its softness contrast with the texture of the tree trunk.
As expected the lens delivered that cinematic result that the 1950 lenses, especially when German, are praised for.
B. Using the 1970 135mm Jupiter 11 f4 lens: Since I had acquired this lens to complete the original set of 4 Kiev lenses and never used this lens before, I took most of the photos with this lens. Unfortunately the process of using an external finder slowed the rhythm of shooting necessary for a split second take during street photography.
Still, a few shots show what a little bit of experience using this lens can deliver.
I took this photo from about 20 meters away. Since I had read that this lens can deliver a nice bokeh when open up to f5.6, and since it was a very sunny day, I set the aperture to about f7 (there are no clicks on the aperture ring so the opening is continuous between set numbers) and the shutter speed to 1/250th seconds.
The vintage feel is there, but less pronounced than with the 50mm Jupiter 8. But the sharpness is above average.
This next shot was from about 15 meters. This time I used an aperture of f4 and a shutter speed of 1/500th seconds.
Now the blurring of the background came through! Although I prefer the smooth blurring of the 85mm Jupiter 9 which I had used for portraiture decades ago, this 135mm lens did surprise me. Maybe I will try again, perhaps with a wider opening and 1/1000th second speed using a less busy background.
Was this experiment worth it?
Yes! Not only did the 70 years old camera and lenses work impeccably without any repair and maintenance over the years, but the results were very pleasing given that I had lost the tempo of using a rangefinder camera with a second external viewfinder/framer when a quick focusing and framing was needed with the 135mm lens.
And of course it took me back to using my first camera and lens I got from my parents when I was 8 years old. And that camera is still with me, and does handle well in my now bigger hands!
PS/ Here are a couple of my published posts about using my 1953 Kiev 3A over the years:
https://vahezen.blogspot.com/2021/06/when-lalbatros-of-baudelaire-meets-rumi.html
https://vahezen.blogspot.com/2024/02/siamo-tutti-semi-in-attesa-della-pioggia_4.html
December 7, 2025
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2025
