C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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rangefinder-35mm
The Kiev 4A is a simplified variant of the Kiev 4 rangefinder, introduced in 1962 at the Arsenal Plant in Kiev, Ukraine. Where the Kiev 4 included an uncoupled selenium exposure meter, the 4A omits it entirely, producing a lighter and mechanically simpler body at a lower price point. The core design is unchanged: Contax II-derived vertical-travel metal-curtain shutter, 90 mm coupled rangefinder baseline, and Contax-bayonet lens mount. Exposure is purely manual, determined by the photographer using an external meter or the sunny-16 rule.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
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Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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Before you buy used
About this camera
The stripped-down Kiev 4 - same Contax-derived body, same shutter, no exposure meter.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm |
| Mount | Contax/Kiev (Contax rangefinder bayonet) |
| Years | 1962 onward (discontinued ~1970s) |
| Shutter | 1/2s - 1/1250s + B, mechanical vertical metal curtain |
| Flash sync | 1/30s |
| Meter | None |
| Modes | Manual |
| Battery | None required |
| Weight | ~ |
Arsenal Plant's Kiev rangefinder line evolved through multiple simultaneous variants rather than strict linear succession. The Kiev 4 (1957) had an uncoupled selenium meter; the Kiev 4A was introduced in 1962 as the meterless parallel model for buyers who preferred simplicity or who used a separate handheld meter. The Kiev 4AM later combined the 4A's meterless body with the 4M's hot shoe. The 4A occupied the lower end of the Kiev 4 series pricing during Soviet-era export sales and remained in production until the rangefinder line wound down in the mid-1970s to 1980s.
The 4A is the purest, most minimal expression of the Contax II design that came out of the Arsenal factory. With no selenium cell to fail - and no meter housing adding weight above the lens - it is the lightest and simplest of the Kiev 4-series bodies. For photographers using an external meter or shooting in predictable light, the absence of a meter is not a loss.
Practical significance: selenium meters on surviving Kiev 4 examples are almost universally dead or unreliable. The 4A buyer is not paying for (or troubleshooting) a feature that doesn't work anyway. The trade-off is that the 4M and 4AM added a hot shoe that the 4A lacks, meaning flash requires a PC sync cable.
Contax/Kiev rangefinder mount: Jupiter-8 50/2, Jupiter-3 50/1.5, Jupiter-12 35/2.8, Jupiter-9 85/2, Industar-26M 50/2.8. Pre-war Zeiss Contax lenses fit the same bayonet. Flash requires a PC sync socket (present on body) and a PC-cable-connected flash unit; no accessory shoe on the 4A body.
C41
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
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Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
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