Kiev Rangefinder

Kiev is the name of a city in Russia, and this camera was actually produced with the machinery, and tooling Russians took away from Zeiss Ikon in east Berlin after WWII, and shipped to Kiev by trains. The real advantage of making the curtains like a steel watch band, in Kiev, and contax, is the curtains could interlock during the cocking cycle, and you can’t do that with thin cloth focal plane shutters. The first curtain hook, and latch lever (see below) work together to lock the first curtain in place before shutter release. When the release button is pressed in, the latch lever disengages to release the first curtain.