Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/04/22

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Subject: [Leica] Re:Bye Bye Mamiya
From: clzeni at mindspring.com (Craig Zeni)
Date: Sat Apr 22 05:27:24 2006
References: <4F488248ADCD6C419976DFE43A115091EBAC17@SV-EX01.jp2hs.campus>

On Apr 22, 2006, at 1:57 AM, Arche, Harvey wrote:

>
> Daniel wrote:
>> Now, now. Not all is bleak:
>>
>> http://www.araxfoto.com/
>>
>> Daniel
>
> These are new to me, but I don't pay close attention to the MF world. 
> Has anybody anything to say about them? At those prices MF would be 
> hard to not to move into. Its just too bad that the russian design 
> esthetic for cameras hasn't moved away from coffins and hearses.

These are, as Daniel noted, rebuilt Kiev cameras.  Yes, they're ugly as 
homemade sin (there's another Southern American expression for M. 
Orient)...but from what I've heard they work very well.  I have a 
Kiev-60 that I bought thru Hartblei several years ago - it's not 
subtle, nor is it a finely tuned machine.  But at that time it was 
about as cheap a way to into MF with interchangeable lenses...after the 
Digital Stampede started I was able to snag a Pentax 67-II for very 
reasonable money and my Kiev now gets little use.  The Kiev cameras 
that use the Pentacon-6 mount will take a number of lenses from 
CZJ...the 50/4 Flektogon has a super reputation, especially the 
multicoated version.  There's also the Arsat 3.5/30mm full frame 
fisheye - astoundingly cheap and pretty good.

CZ
NC