Unless you are teasing us, Brian, if you don't know then who on earth will? If you really don't know than all I can think of is asking Oleg/Fedka.
OK - well, I can't remember if it's in your work or not, so I'm going to take a potshot that it dates to the crossover period when the Contax machinery had first been moved to the USSR and the first top plates were rolling off the machines. Though the CZJ lens cap suggests otherwise, I might as well play!
Don't know what it's called. So we shall he to call it " The No Name" No really........ A rare variant of the Kiev-4A is the 'No-name' Kiev, so called because there are no engravings on it other than the serial number, t It is equipped with a Carl Zeiss:2 f=0mm lens. The story goes that Kiev had a surplus of Zeiss lenses as a result of their seizure in 1945/6. So to use them up they fitted them to a " No Name" camera ,mainly to sell to the USA. They are listed as being produced in 1963 but I have two, one that year and the other 1964. Now the 1964 version has a Jupiter lens, story is they made more bodies than they need. But after some time I found the 1963 with Zeiss Sonnar......or rather a friend in Kiev did.Funnily enough a good way to tell the genuine ones is the ever ready case. The No Name case hasn't got the usual embossed nose cone, it's blank. Some examples are engraved " Made in USSR occupied Germany" this engraving was possibly added by unscrupulous dealers in order to convince people that it was a German camera.
The back of the top cover should have the words: USSR Occupied Germany engraved, it was designed for export to the United States approximately 5,000 were produced.
The interesting thing about the Kiev "Contaxes" is that they are surprisingly reliable, at least in my experience...
This is version is known as the Kiev 4M, one can tell by the black tip self-timer and black shutter speed dial. Manufactured between 1976-87.
Yes. I had an earlier one which had the all metal self timer and the older rewind knob design. I sold that one on when I got an "inexpensive" Leica M3.
