Where
to buy?
OK this appears to be
the tricky part! There are several sources for these and mixed reviews
on all of them.
Kievcamera sells the 88CM's and can give good
service but can also be hard to deal with depending on who you talk
with. Overall it is a good place to work with but you are limited to
the 88CM cloth shutter lockring model. He sells these on ebay and from
his website, he is located in Atlanta GA so shipping costs are
less. The main problem is he doesn't repair them himself and if you
have a problem he exchanges it for another camera that may have
different problems. If the quality control was better this might be OK
but some people have gotten several bad cameras in a row and this can
get old pretty fast.
Kiev USA modifies and sells their own versions of
the K88. Some people swear by them, other say they have had problems
dealing with them as well. The main positive I see is they do the work
themselves so if you have problems with a specific camera the work on
it to solve it rather than just sending another unknown camera.
Eventually you should end up with a good camera. They are more
expencive compared to the other retailers is the main down side to
buying from them.
Arax is a new dealer/upgrader and so far have good
reviews. Good comunications, fast service and quality products. They
will make a "custom" camera to your specs. You can pick shutter
material, color of leather and how complete a kit you want to
buy. They can probably make a "B" mount camera if you want one.
So far they aren't making 'blad back type models. Time will tell how
well their service and cameras hold up but right now they appear to be
a good option.
Hartblei makes very nice products but their service
and distribution leaves much to be desired. Some people have paid
direct for cameras they have never recieved, it's not clear if
the "real" Hartblei still owns or even has conections with the Hartblei
web site etc. I've bought 2 cameras from someone who personally
knows the owner of the "real" Hartblei and both took a =long= time to
arrive, one was over a year! Both work very well and were custom
ordered/made to my specs. I wish they were more reliable so I could
suggest buying from them but I can't. If you find one of their cameras,
I wouldn't hesitate to buy it but there aren't many of them around. The
non-branded "Hartblei modified" cameras don't seem to hold up as well
as the "real" ones if you can even determine if one is a real Hartblei
or not!
There are other people selling various versions of
modified versions. Some work great, some don't. There are too many odd
camera versions to list and you're on your own with these. Several
people have bought some of these "B" mount cloth shutter cameras off
ebay and have been very pleased with them.
The last choice is the straight from the factory
K-88's most easily found on ebay. These have a very high failure rate
and are why these have such an awful reputation. If you're looking for
something this cheap, I would suggest you get a K60 instead. The chance
of getting a good sample this way is pretty slim.
This is all part of the problem with these, there is
no real distribution network of dealers or factory support. There is no
good place to buy parts and repairs/service is also a problem. This
goes back to the idea that buying from someone who also knows how
to fix them is probably a good idea. If I was faced with buying one
today I'd be leaning towards giving Arax a try.