Arrived in a very tired leatherette case, with a yellow filter and an orange filter. As I often see the Vega 2 on the Internet with a yellow filter, I suspect that there was no neutral density filter (or UV) in the basic offer.
Kiev Vega 2
Kiev Vega 2 bought on leboncoin.fr (40€+ 5,50€ postage); delivered on october 5th, 2009.
The successor of Vega.
While disassembling it (to replace the old grease), I noticed it seemed to have been used a lot. It belonged to a relative of the seller, here is what she wrote about it:"Summer 1967: Four students of the School of law, Pau, one of which has just bought a new Renault 4L, decide to leave for Middle East and show the first goal of their trip: Pau - Ankara on the car. Although naturally, they will have to content with little baggage, the minimum of camping equipment and their meager savings. But no matter, the adventure awaits.On the ferry which transports them from Brindisi to Istanbul was purchased the Bera 2 (sic). Small and compact, it will allow the small company to discreetly take pictures in museums or mosques visited, and will travel a lot: Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Israel. Back through Greece, then Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Italy. Arrived in France, after three months of adventure, our four friends separated. It was their last year in Faculty, military service waited for the three boys and the girl will discover the working life.The 4L has suffered and will soon take a well deserved retirement... Our four friends will not meet again and Bera, which has knocked about a lot, sleep forever in a drawer then a cupboard where I found it, only witness to this journey ... "
Main improvement compared to the first model: focusing by a small knob on the left of the shutter release button. Also a very nice exposure calculator - note that it provides maximum film speed of 130 GOST (125 ISO-ASA), away from the last available films (ISO 200 or 400 for color), which, more, have the default of being too grainy for this image size.
The right cover is replaced by a cast metal handle, the figures are painted, not engraved, and disappear with the friction of the strap hook.
Another difference, not visible at first: from this model, the drive shaft of the film has a smaller diameter, the magazines were altered accordingly, presumably to allow loading the Soviet-made films , which support is thicker (not to input longer film, the counter is still scheduled for 20 exposures). So, the cartridges for Vega 2 and followings are not compatible with the Vega(1) and the Minolta 16, I found my mistake, after loading cartridges from Kiev 30 to try a Minolta!
The Vega 2 above at right, The Vega below at left.
On top, Vega magazine and its spool, on bottom Kiev 30 magazine and its spool, smaller.