Well I suppose I was due for disappointment...

From Old Glass

The second Russian showed up while I was in LA/San Diego... It seems I need to pay a LITTLE more attention to the entry in eBay. I thought a Kiev 4 used LTM mount lenses, but alas I was mistaken. The ad even said it was a Contax III type mount. It came with what looks like a REALLY nice f/2 50mm Jupiter-8M lens, but I can't USE the bloody thing because I don't have that converter. When I went to price one, the $250 price tag (!!!!!) sorta scared me off.

From Old Glass

"OK, so this fabulous lens came attached to a mediocre camera. You say that the technical quality depends more on the glass than the camera, right? So shoot some film with it and stop griping!"

Well, yeah, when the camera it comes mounted to has all it's parts. Sadly this nice little number is lacking the ubiquitous "take up reel" that the early Contax/Leica/Kiev/FED camera's depended on.

Meh.

SO I have a nice camera, and I am going to order a $2.00 part from Latvia or Ukraine or some other post Soviet republic, pay the $12.00 or so shipping, and wait another freaking month to try this thing.

From Old Glass