| Russian knock-off of the Hasselblad 1000 series. Essentially, everything about the two cameras is identical, save for the fact that the Kiev is mechanically more of a door stop than a camera.
It's a Single Lens Reflex 6cm x 6cm MF camera that uses 120 film, I believe they've recently starting producing 6cm x 4.5cm backs as well - and in many ways the camera has improved dramatically in the last few years.
The early Kiev 88 lacked internal frocking, so all the metal pieces (including a bright, shiny copper shutter?!? why?) were completely exposed... and what are we trying to do with cameras? We're trying to trap light in a specific fashion - to make it enter the camera precisely and make contact with the film plane in a very certain way. You start putting reflective material inside the camera body where the light passes through and all hell breaks loose. Literally. Some of my negatives shooting into bright light with the Kiev 88 had light streaks all over the negative... In bright light conditions with an older Kiev 88 it is impossible to know exactly what you're going to get and whether or not a given negative will be worth anything to you. That's not a good thing.
Other problems with the camera: I've heard of winding and spooling problems, but never had them, and you do have occasional shutter misfires... with no warning that they happened... just a blank negative every hundred rolls... and that's gotta be the most aggravating part... Good things about the Kiev 88... pretty good lenses, good availabily, dirt cheap. Is it worth it? Not from my experience.
Okay Okay, so there is a reason to buy a Kiev 88... interested in fisheye photography? The Zodiac-8 V 30mm f3.5 is an excellent lens you can get for under $200. As opposed to the $2000 one might pay for another Medium Format fisheye.
If anyone has any questions about the Kiev 88 from someone who tried to use one for over a year - I'd be happy to answer them...
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