Forerunners of Kiev 1947

Very interesting markings! Thanks, Ulrich!
I had seen some on my own cameras, but payed no attention. Stupid of me.
Are there other ones?

Amitiйs. Jacques.

Jacques,

yes, there are more markings existing:

1) On my early export KIEV II from 1950 there is the name "Hans" written on the back under the film pressure plate. According to Altix these 1949/50 early export KIEVs (with engraved and not stamped name on the front) are made in 1947 in Jena and were shipped to Kiev so that the new workers can learn how to assemble/diassemble the camera. In 1949/50 these cameras were engraved bilingual, got a serial number and were sold then:



And look at the small engraved "N" near the shutter number (also the 1950 KIEV II):



2) On my Jena Contax with serial 27885 there are also engravements from August Coutandin, see the "AC" on two places of the shutter:





3) And see the Jena Contax 18133: Also the "AC" and the there is a "E" engraved. Maybe the E stands for "Hilmar Eichler":



And here is the Jena Contax crew, there you can see August and Hans:



Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de

Many thanks fot this very complete explanation, Ulrich!
And I had forgotten that famous photo with the "Jenaers"...
Really, I should check my own Jena Contaxes and early Kievs...

Amitiйs. Jacques.

Thanks Ulrich and Jacques. I hope I can find some time at the next weekend to open the camera. I also have a earlier Jena Contax (chrome) with the number 15325. According to Bernd Otto, that camera should date from 1949 and the cameras with numbers 27801-28100 from 1950.

The information about the early Kiev-II export version was new to me. I'm still looking for one of these, there were a few on ebay recently and now I'm annoyed that I didn't get one.

Best
Andreas

Checking my photos, a "N" too on my Kiev 1948:

Excellent historic data Ulrich Great research
Regards

Luiz and treehorn, thanks. The history of the Kiev is very interesting. And I think that there are more secrets that we don't know until now :-)

Jacques, the N looks like mine. And typically there are the two scratced lines under and above the digits of the serial number. Seems to be made from the same person.

Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de

I would never have guessed, that there has been so small amount of people making the actual cameras from pieces, this is far from serial production.

Best regards,
Juhani

Finally I found some time to open the black #28073. There is no number at the shutter, only the marking "III"

Treehorn,

nice that you were able to open it. I have never seen a scratched in "III" on any Kiev. Really interesting. Maybe this could be an original Contax shutter?

Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de

Another Jena Contax II here, belonging to the 15xxx batch (in fact, 15201 to 15450, mounted in 1949).
No real changes, compared to the precedent batches, except the back which is heavy, as made of brass rather alloy.

Some photos (ask for others if useful):







Amitiйs. Jacques.

Jacques,

nice find. I'm curious to see if there are also engravings of the fitters inside. You remember the "C/A" in my Jena Contax.

Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de

I have a look inside as soon as I can.
Thanks, Ulrich.

I was looking at some pictures I took of 501774, which I overhauled may years ago. I noticed an N on the slow speeds mechanism similar to the one elsewhere in this thread. The chassis number is 1767

for some reason the image failed to load last attempt!

And the chassis number..

Steve,

interesting, once again the "N" and the square incised numbers. It was probably always carved by the same person.

Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de