[georg16nik]

..Secondly Zeiss manufacturing of cameras was fundamentally flawed In a way that doomed them to be overwhelmed by the Japanese. Thirdly, even though my Contax IIa color dial (which cost more than a new car in 1954) probably never worked properly, which is why it is_pristine_:it can be rebuilt, better than it was before, without spending six million dollars. Fourthly Kievs are a crap shoot with the emphasis on crap......

David

The German made Zeiss cameras and optics are highly regarded, worldwide, and its like that for ages. Zeiss leading role in optics was a fact, long before the Japanese started to copy Zeiss and many others German companies.
It might be interesting to know that Hubble's replacement, The James Webb Space Telescope optics are designed, integrated and tested by Carl Zeiss Optronics GmbH of Oberkochen, Germany.

Zeiss is probably the only company that provides lifetime transferable warranty for their pro optics and its been like that for many decades.

Well...

Early Kievs arguably *are* Contaxes, made with the same machines, overseen by the same technicans and sometimes using parts made in Germany.

I had 2 Kievs which worked perfectly and sold only because I went the "M" route for ergonomic and practical reasons.

Undoubtedly there are many "Monday morning" Kievs out there, but also many good ones.

Absolutely!