As mentioned above, the capital of Ukraine, located in Central/Eastern Europe on the river Dnepr. A beautiful city, one of the oldest in Europe (Kiev was founded more than 1500 years ago, and has a very rich history).

Population is currently at around 4 million people, which is about a third of Moscow. Highlights of the city include the old churches and cathedrals of which there are plenty, Kreschatik (the main street of Kiev), the underground subway system and the parks.

A very green city, with "Kashtan" being a very common tree and also the symbol of the city. Main languages spoken are Ukrainian and Russian, although some people object to Russian with the whole Ukraine independance thing. An absolute must to visit for anyone who ever goes to the Ukraine.

A sorely missed Ukrainian coffee shop, formerly located on the corner of 2nd Avenue and 7th Street in Manhattan's East Village. Before it closed its doors sometime in November 2000, it was an excellent place to stop in for slightly surly service and yummy challah French toast at any time of the day or night. I spent long afternoons there while cutting class in my first semester of college, reading zines from See Hear and nursing bottomless cups of coffee.

A brand of Russian-, and later, Ukrainian-made cameras.

Modern Kiev cameras include their two medium format cameras, the Kiev 60 and the Kiev 88.

The Kiev 60 is a clone of the Pentacon medium format camera, and looks basically like an enlarged SLR camera. The Kiev 60 shares the same lens mount as the Pentacon. They are fairly popular as an alternative to the Pentacons, as the Kiev 60 is still (or was until quite recently) still made, while the Pentacon has been out of production for a few decades.

The Kiev 88 was devloped as a copy of a camera that was the basis for the Hasselblad camera. Therefore, the Kiev 88 is quite similar mechanically to the Hasselblad 1000f. The Kiev 88 lens mount, unfortunately, is not compatible with Hasselblad. Kiev88 are popular mainly because of the many fine lenses that are available for it, most notably the 30mm fisheye lens. For less than $400, you could buy a Kiev88 camera and the fisheye lens. A fisheye lens for any other medium format camera would cost at least $5000.

Besides the fisheye lens, other Kiev lenses include the 80mm, 120mm, 150mm, 250mm, and 300mm lenses. A sufficient variety for most uses.

Because of their low cost, both Kiev medium format cameras make nice beginner cameras for those interested in medium format photography.

Kiev also makes a 35mm SLR camera with a Nikon-compatible lens mount.



There are also Kiev 35mm rangefinder cameras. Although I'm pretty certain they are no longer being made, they are quite nice and sought after. Interestingly, these cameras were produced after WWII when the former German Contax factory and equipment were captured by Soviet forces and moved to Kiev. They just changed the plaque with the name from Contax to KNEB (Cyrillic for Kiev), and kept making the same cameras.

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