For awhile now, I've been looking for a 35mm rangefinder to add to my "take everywhere" rotation. Currently, that consists of SLRs - a Nikon N90, and a Pentax K1000. I'll lug around one of my medium-format cameras when possible and/or practical, but I've come to appreciate the convenience of 35mm*.

* Film and convenience together sounds funny, doesn't it? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have a good digital camera - problem is that I have yet to find one that 1) I enjoy using, and 2) I can afford. If Nikon were to make a digital FM or FE, I'd be all over that.

The first rangefinder I tried was a Yashica Electro GSN, with a very sharp 45mm f/1.7 fixed lens and aperture priority. Awesome lens, good metering, but I've found it to be a little too bulky (feels heavier than my 35mm SLRs), and I didn't like the low-contrast rangefinder window so much. The ergonomics could be better - I'd rather see the aperture ring be closer to the body, and the focus closer to the end of the lens. I use it from time to time, but not as much as I would like.

Later, I came across the very popular Olympus XA. I loved the compact size at first, but eventually started to feel that it may be too small, as my hands were feeling cramped. It had another low-contrast rangefinder, which didn't work well for me in some lighting conditions. I also came across a Konica C35 at an antique store. Specs-wise, this is almost identical to the XA, but I much preferred the C35's handling. The camera I bought had no battery, but after installing one, I discovered that the shutter was bad, and was firing at the same speed regarless of meter reading. But oh man, that camera had the nicest view/rangefinder I've seen yet. Big, contrasty, seemed to work in most lighting. I'll definitely keep my eyes open for another.

I came to the conclusion that I enjoyed rangefinders enough to buy into a system with interchangeable lenses. That essentially meant Leica M, LTM, Nikon or Contax*. One thing that intrigued me was the high quality Soviet lenses, the most of which seemed to be available for LTM. To go with that, there are a lot of great looking Soviet M39 cameras. To me, this would be a good start, with a potential upgrade path to a Voigtlander Bessa R. Further research, however, pushed me toward the bayonet mounts. Two weeks ago, I settled on Zeiss Contax, because of the quality/cost ratio of available lenses, as well as its extremely wide rangefinder base.

* I guess this could be interpreted as the old Zeiss system, or the more modern G series. I'd consider both. And yes, I know Canon had their own bayonet, but I still consider their rangefinders to be primarily Leica thread mount.

Today, I came home to find a box covered in Cyrillic lettering waiting for me, which is always exciting. Inside was what looked like a Zeiss Contax III rangefinder, however it did not say Contax on it. This camera is a Kiev 4A, built in Ukraine in the early 1960s, years after the Soviets took over one of the Zeiss factories and moved operations back home. For all intents and purposes, this is a Contax III - my understanding is that the same factory produced models under both names.

The lens included is a Jupiter-8, an old Soviet copy of the Zeiss Sonnar 50mm f/2. Looked clean, with a few particles floating around under the front element group. In the camera body, I noticed a few quirks right away. First, the self-timer didn't work. Not a big deal to me, but maybe it could be fixed. Second, the exposure counter counted up, despite the fact that everything I've read about this camera says it counts down. I like it better this way, especially since I use a lot of bulk film that doesn't really have a set number of exposures. Finally, the shutter speed knob seemed to only work *before* advancing the film, not after as most reviews seem to say. But that makes sense, because slower speeds will require more winding.

Impressions? Oh hell yes. The viewfinder isn't bright by any stretch of the imagination, but it isn't too dark, either. It has a slight gray tint, while the rangefinder image is a bright pink for fantastic contrast. I could focus easily in bright sunlight, or in my basement. My eyesight isn't the greatest, so a good focusing aid and bright enough viewfinder is very important to me. And you know what? This might be the nicest focusing camera I've used yet. The viewfinder has no parallax correction, but whatev. The focusing knob is great, though the infinity lock mechanism is annoying at times. I may "disable" it with a toothpick in the future. Shutter speeds "feel" correct. No meter in this version, as the selenium meter in the Kiev 4 is uncoupled (annoying), probably broken, and kind of ugly. I absolutely love the wide rangefinder base, which makes for slow but very precise focusing.

Mine, unfortunately, did not come with a take-up spool. I can easily make one by cutting a notch into an old spool, but since I was in a bit of a hurry, I just taped the leader to a solid spool from a bulk canister. Hopefully that works ok. I'm not quite through my first roll, but I'll post the results when I am.

So far, I really, really like this. Its not perfect, but it seems to have all of the features that are important to me. I'd love to see an updated version with a modern, coupled meter (Dear Cosina/Voigtlander, please make a Contax RF clone now, complete with wide base, kthx). This thing has potential to be my default "take everywhere" camera, depending on how I can deal with the lack of built-in meter (sunny-16 has always worked fine for me).