Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Kiev 4M

Arsenal · Contax RF mount · 24×36mm on 35mm film, removable back · 1976

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Type 1 (pre-series) Contax RF 1976–1977 — No figure published
Type 2 Contax RF 1976–1980 — No figure published
Type 3 (Olympic) Contax RF 1979–1980 #7902251 — 1979, the Olympic body sovietcams records; the page gives no lens number with it No figure published
Type 4 Contax RF 1979–1980 — No figure published
Type 5 Contax RF 1980–1987 #8109546 — 1981; #8221172 — 1982. sovietcams lists both against the Kiev-4M without naming a type; the two-digit rule puts them inside this type's span and no other No figure published
Kiev 4AM (unmetered) Contax RF 1980–1987 — No figure published
  1. No production figure has been published for the Kiev 4M or the 4AM. sovietcams enters "Quantity: Unknown" against every version it lists, including the Olympic one.
  2. No factory serial-number table has been published for this camera either. The rule above is stated by camera-wiki and by Mike Eckman and borne out by collector records; it is not drawn from an Arsenal document, and no source consulted here has seen one.
  3. The type spans do not agree. This entry gives Type 5 as 1980–1987; camera-wiki gives 1981–87, and describes four sub-types of it rather than the one this entry carries. The two serials sovietcams records for late bodies, #8109546 and #8221172, fall in 1981 and 1982 and settle neither reading.
  4. camera-wiki identifies five types and five sub-types of the Kiev 4M, distinguished by the top plate, the self-timer, the rewind knob and the export plate. It gives production figures for none of them.
  5. Corroborated, and the badge cleared. USSRPhoto's catalogue covers the Kiev 4M independently of camera-wiki and bears out the same version markers: a short early run with a black-painted top plate and meter housing, a later type carrying the self-timer lever completely covered and a higher-profile rewind crank, and a 1980 Olympic model supplied with a Jupiter-8M. It enters Quantity: Unknown for the 4M and the 4AM alike, as sovietcams does. The type taxonomy and the absence of figures are no longer held by one source.
  6. The two accounts sort the same parts into different years. camera-wiki hangs its early types on the black top plate and the old self-timer lever within 1976–1980; USSRPhoto dates the fully covered self-timer and the taller rewind crank from 1982, and heads its main 4M entry 1977–1987 against this entry's 1976. Both describe the same components changing in the same order, and neither publishes a serial block for any of the changes.
  7. The Olympic body and the Jupiter-8M numbered 7939120 are not an outfit. sovietcams lists that lens against #8221172, a 1982 body, and records the Olympic #7902251 without a lens number; the page was read twice to be sure. An earlier reading of this entry paired them as a 1979 camera with its 1979 lens, which the source does not support.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • A restyled top plate and a hot shoe, where the Kiev 4 has a cold one
  • The same 90mm rangefinder base and the same 1936 shutter underneath

Type 1 (pre-series):

  • Black top plate

Type 2:

  • Self-timer lever as on the Kiev 4

Type 3 (Olympic):

  • Olympic marking, for the Moscow games of 1980
  • Sub-type 3a has the old black rewind knob; 3b the new type with white rings

Type 4:

  • A Made in USSR plate on the back, in Latin letters

Kiev 4AM (unmetered):

  • No meter

Serial-range notes

the first two digits
THE RULE. camera-wiki states it for this camera in one line — "Serial no. in the hot-shoe, the first two digits show the production year" — and the hot shoe is the 4M's own distinguishing feature, so the number sits on the part that tells the model apart. #8109546 is 1981, #8221172 is 1982. What follows the year is a running number within it, not a total. Mike Eckman gives the same rule for Kiev cameras and lenses at large, and JAPB for Soviet equipment generally.
#8221172 with lens 7939120
A body and a lens that do not agree. sovietcams lists the Jupiter-8M 2/53 numbered 7939120 against camera #8221172: by the two-digit rule the lens reads 1979 and the body 1982. The pair is the caution the rule needs — the number on a lens dates that lens and nothing else, and a body cannot be dated from the glass mounted on it three years later.
a number beginning 00
The one number that is not a date. JAPB records a habit, kept for the whole life of the USSR, of numbering prototypes and pre-production samples from 00, and post-Soviet plants sometimes reused the prefix for the year 2000. The Type 1 pre-series is exactly the sort of run that habit covers, though no source consulted here quotes a serial for one.

Specifications

Format
24×36mm on 35mm film, removable back

Where sources disagree

Years
  • 1980–1987 — the variant table in this entry
  • 1976–1987 — USSRPhoto's catalogue entry for the Kiev 4AM

When the unmetered 4AM appeared. USSRPhoto starts it in the same 1976 as the metered 4M; this entry has it arriving four years later. No serial from an early 4AM has been found that would settle it, and USSRPhoto's own quantity field for the camera reads Unknown.

What reviewers say

History

The Kiev 4M is the end of the longest production run in this catalog. Its design is the Contax II of 1936, by way of the Contax III, the Kiev II, the Kiev III and the Kiev 4; it was modernised in 1976 with a restyled top plate and a hot shoe, and Arsenal built it until 1987. Fifty-one years, two countries, one camera.

Collectors sort it into five types and five sub-types, and the distinguishing features are worth listing because they say what the factory was doing: a black-topped pre-series, a version keeping the old self-timer lever, an Olympic-marked run for the Moscow games of 1980 — itself split by whether the rewind knob is the old black type or the new one with white rings — a version with a “Made in USSR” plate in Latin letters for export, and a final type. No production figures are published for any of them.

The Kiev 4AM is the same camera without the meter. As with the 4 and 4A, that is the one to buy now.

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This history is AI-written, from the sources listed at the foot of the page. Where the record is silent it says so rather than filling the gap — but no human wrote these sentences.

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $140 across 35 fixed-price listings on 2026-09-06 (middle half $86–$180). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

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Listings updated 2026-09-05. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Related: Kiev 4 · Contax II · Kiev 5

Lenses for this body: Jupiter-8 50mm f/2

Sources (7)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this camera, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.