Two years into my enjoyment of the Kiev camera, I'm the lucky possesor of 5 flattop (meterless) Kievs. (*11/05 update: down to 3; no more Contax II or K-4a-2.).All are in very sweet mechanical condition, and recently serviced. As with any vintage camera, shutter speeds are not those marked; the main thing is to know what they are. It may be of interest to see how accurate speeds are, and if there is a pattern to the variations.

Speeds measured wiith a Calumet shutter tester. In most cases the second shot at a given speed was within a few percent of the first, and I moved on. When there was a significant difference I shot a few more and discarded the first reading.

Marked speed	Contax II* 1936	Kiev 2 1953	Kiev 4a 1960	Kiev 4a 1964	Kiev 4a-2* 1976
2	2	2	2	1.2	2.5
5	5	6	5	2.5	8
10	15	12	8	4	13
25	20	25	20	15	25
50	90	45	35	30	50
125	125	125	100	125	100
250	175	200	175	185	150
500	325	300	300	450	275
1250	500	500	850	800	500

Above values put in graphical form by Russ Pinchbeck, creator of the essential Kiev Survival Site.

(October 2004)