I bought my Ukrainian made Kiev 4A camera sometime toward the end of the 1970s. This rangefinder camera was a copy of a pre war Contax camera that was itself a copy of a Leica. This camera was much cheaper than a Leica at approx £40.
Film was loaded through the bottom with a detachable base plate. It was a rangefinder camera so focus was achieved by merging a split image in the centre of the viewfinder. It was smaller and quieter to use than a 35mm SLR like my Zenith E or Pentax K1000 so this was the camera of choice in the early 1980s for my documentary projects, most notably the Nightlife project set in pubs and clubs in Nottingham