 The Kiev 35AM is a compact, lightweight, aperture-priority automatic 35mm camera. Very small, hardly any bigger than a packet of sigarettes. It was copied after a Minox camera. But allthough the Korsar Lens is very sharp and very capable, it is not a great camera. The failure rate of this camera is about 70 to 80 percent. The first roll I ran through it gave 12 exposures on a roll of 24. The other 12 were all black. It has other problems too, meter seems to be stuck and it eats batteries. Keep the batteries in it for about a week and they will be empty. I repaired this camera 3 times now. I repaired the filmadvance, which broke down. I did some work on the shutter which became stuck and now I repaired it for the 3rd time. It works now, but for how long. Problems with the Kiev 35a can be the following.
And with a big failurerate like this I'm not likely to buy another one. Pherhaps if I could buy them for 5 dollars a camera, I might. Otherwise, stay clear of this camera, it is the worst one if have seen. Specifications Black or olive drab Film type 35mm Lens MC Korsar 2.8/35 mm lens Focusing scale from 0.5 m to infinity Aperture scale f2 to f16 Shutter type black metal coil focal plane shutter with vertical traverse Shutter speeds (seconds)4s to 1/500th Continuously variable Flash synchronization type X sync, through hot shoe connection Maximum shutter speed for flash synch 1/60th second Metering Full-aperture metering, ISO settings of 50, 100, 200, 400, and 800 Power source 6 volts (Maxell LR-44 or equivalent), four required Frame counter to 36 exposures, with auto-reset Size 101.5x64x32.5 mm Weight 200grams |