135compact.com 35mm ultra compact cameras KIEV 35 A
The
Kiev 35A is an ultra compact camera made in Ukraine by Arsenal between
1985 and 1991. It is a very close copy of a Minox 35, but produced with
lower quality material and an completely unreliable electronic system.
The
Minox 35 series was invented by the father of the original Minox
cameras, Walter Zapp, with the help of a designer, Prof. Richard
Fischer. They chose a new material for the body, fiber-reinfoced
Makrolon. At its launch in 1974 it became the world's smallest 135 film
camera, a title it kept until 1996 when the Minolta TC1 came out. The
series ended in 2002.
The Kiev 35A is fully manual. Its main features are:
35mm F2.8 Korsar lens, min. focus 1m Aperture
priority (2.8-16), electronic shutter, 4sec.-1/500, speed indication in the viewerfinder window Size 101x64x33, Weight 180 gr. 25-800 Gost or ISO, hot shoe, cable release socket
Front closed.
Back side. Wind lever (2-stroke).
Seen
from above. Rewind lever, hot shoe, shutter button with cable release socket, exposure
counter.
Seen from below. Film compartment opening lever, ISO setting, tripod socket, rewind unlock button.
Camera
open, lens extended. Viewfinder and battery
compartment (4x SR44 batteries, easy to find)
Distance setting on the lens barrel with DOF scale.
Film compartment open.
The aperture setting sits near the camera body. Adjusting it you may change the distance setting inadvertedly. So be careful.
The
Kiev 35A is said to be very unreliable. Frequently there seem to be
light leaks. I have not been able to come even that far I tried
out several items over the years and none of them worked. In all cases
the shutter did not work. 2 did not work at all, they were just dead.
On one ISO setting did not respond and the shutter did not open.
Another one opened the shutter, but did not close it. And yet onother
one opened the shutter at the second advance stroke and closed it when
you hit the shutter button. So I gave up.
