Kiev-10 Automat

Arsenal · Kiev Automat mount · 24×36mm on 135 film · 1965

Also known as: Kiev 10 · Kiev-10 · Kiev10 · Kiev 10 Automat · Kiev-10 Automat · Kiev 10 Avtomat · Kiev-10 Avtomat · Kiev Automat · Kiev Avtomat · Kiew 10 · Kiew-10 · Kiew 10 Automat · Kyiv 10 · Kyiv-10 · Arsenal Kiev 10 · Киев-10 · Киев 10 · Киев-10 Автомат · Киев-Автомат · Київ-10

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
First version: КИЕВ 10 on the front plate	Kiev Automat	1964–1967	#640005 — 1964, a pre-series camera in the Yuriy Davidenko collection (sovietcams) #6400066 — 1964, the earliest series type sovietcams records, with very heavy name engraving on the front plate #6500702 — 1965, earliest recorded with the changed strap lugs (Alexey Nikitin collection, sovietcams) #6500769 — 1965, earliest recorded with the normal front-plate engraving and the old lugs; #6600276 — 1966 (sovietcams) #6703562, #6703709, #6706638 — 1967, the last front-plate types, now with the Arsenal logo on the back and the Helios-81 (sovietcams)	Not published by version; Abramov's 'not less than 50,000' is for the whole model
Second version: name on the top plate	Kiev Automat	1967–1974	#6706942 — 1967, the earliest recorded, a transitional camera with the name on top and the flash socket still in the old place (sovietcams) #6804352 — 1968, earliest recorded of the late type; #6807494 and #6807686 — 1968 (sovietcams) #7403885 — 1974, sovietcams' illustrated late camera	Not published by version

Price: 290 roubles is given by ru.wikipedia, which cites a LiveJournal post rather than a price list, and repeated by a reader on Mike Eckman's Kiev-15 page who cites Wikipedia. Eckman's own 170 roubles is a guess built from the KMZ Start's 1960 price. No period price list has been seen, so no structured price is given.
The Kiev-11. Abramov writes that prototypes were prepared in the second half of the 1960s, one with the meter moved to the left of the camera, and that none was series-made; ru.wikipedia adds, 'by some accounts', a TTL-metered Kiev-11. Leitz Photographica Auction 48 offered a grey-paint Kiev-11, serial 6600002 (1966 by Leitz), with Helios-65 Automat #660056, as lot 365: starting price €10,000, estimate €20,000–24,000, unsold. Without a production camera it is recorded here and not as a variant.
Export: English Wikipedia says the Automat-mount cameras were not exported, but sovietcams records Kiev-10 types with 'MADE IN USSR' on the back from 1967 on. Whether they were sold abroad in any number is not documented in the sources read.
Which thread the adapter takes. Arisov and ru.wikipedia describe a factory adapter for M39×1 Zenit-thread lenses, which work stopped down without the automation, and ru.wikipedia says an M42 adapter is impossible because the bayonet is only 41mm across inside. Iain Compton (Serialforeigner) lists 'an m42 lens adapter' among the accessories in his boxed camera. The Russian sources are followed here.
Lenses in the mount. Osborne and Eckman count five Automat lenses: Mir-20 20mm f/3.5, Mir-1 37mm f/2.8, Helios-81 50mm f/2, Jupiter-9 85mm f/2 and Jupiter-11 135mm f/4, plus the earlier Helios-65 50mm f/2. Abramov adds the Era-6 Automat 50mm f/1.5, the Kiev-15's faster kit lens, and the Granit-11 80–200mm zoom with an interchangeable Automat rear. ru.wikipedia's table also lists an Era-18 50mm f/1.2, a Vega-21 85mm f/2, a Tair-11 Automat 135mm f/2.8 and a Rubin-2 (Granit) Automat 45–80mm; Abramov records the Era-18 and Vega-21 as prototypes, and no other source read here has the Tair or the Rubin-2.
'First automatic SLR'. Abramov calls the Kiev-10 the world's first automatic single-lens reflex; Yarovitsyn (Kosmo Foto) argues that it beat the Konica Auto-Reflex, which he dates to December 1965, as the first with a focal-plane shutter and interchangeable lenses; Osborne ('quite possibly', then 'I'm going to go out on a limb here and say yes'), Ivan Lo and Compton make the same claim, and Arisov calls it one of the first, possibly the first, in a race too close to settle. Leaf-shutter automatic SLRs with only partly interchangeable lenses came earlier, the Savoyflex among them, which ru.wikipedia dates to 1959, Kosmo Foto to 1960 and Osborne to 1961. The claim depends on the 1964–65 start, which is itself disputed.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Large selenium cell window, faceted and trapezoid, on the front of the prism above the lens, with horizontal bars beneath it: the Kiev-15 has none
Lenses with no aperture ring, marked АВТОМАТ, on a bayonet released by a button on the photographer's left of the mount, the right as you face the camera (Ivan Lo; Arisov)
Large black rectangular shutter release on the front beside the prism, with the aperture wheel below it (camera-wiki; Ivan Lo)
Shutter and film-speed dial on the left of the top plate and only a small window on the right, the frame counter for Arisov and Ivan Lo, a meter needle for camera-wiki; rewind crank folding into the base plate (camera-wiki; Arisov)
No hot shoe: the Kiev-15 has one on the prism, the Kiev-10 at most a detachable cold shoe (Osborne; Arisov; sovietcams)
Name on the front plate = first version (1964–67); name on the top plate = second version (1967–74) (sovietcams; Abramov)

First version: КИЕВ 10 on the front plate:

КИЕВ 10 engraved on the front plate, on the shoulder beside the prism, and АВТОМАТ on the top plate on the other side (Runner1616's Commons photographs; sovietcams)
No Arsenal logo above the serial on the back before 1967 (sovietcams; Abramov dates the logo's arrival to about 1967)
Normally sold with the Helios-65 Automat 2/50 until 1967 (sovietcams; ru.wikipedia)
Old-style strap lugs on the cameras of 1964 and on sovietcams' type with regular engraving from 1965; a new lug from 1965. The flash socket is on the 'shutter plate' (sovietcams' term) on every front-plate type but one rare 1967 camera (sovietcams)

Second version: name on the top plate:

The camera's name engraved on the top plate and not on the front: Abramov writes that the name 'moved from the front panel to the top' (photohistory.ru; sovietcams)
Arsenal logo above the serial number on the back plate (sovietcams)
From 1968 the PC flash socket is on the body (sovietcams), below the aperture wheel (Arisov; Ivan Lo); the latest cameras carry an accessory shoe on the prism and drop the Cyrillic 'СДЕЛАНО В СССР' from the back (sovietcams)
Usually fitted with the Helios-81 Automat 2/53 (sovietcams; Abramov)

First version: КИЕВ 10 on the front plate: sovietcams sorts the front-plate cameras into types by details that change in small steps: very heavy engraving on the earliest series bodies of 1964, a new strap lug in 1965, the Helios-81 Automat in place of the Helios-65 together with the Arsenal logo on the back plate in 1967, a run with export 'MADE IN USSR' on the back (earliest #6706638), and a single recorded 1967 body, #6703562 in Viktor Suglob's collection, with the flash socket moved to the body. camera-wiki calls this version the 'Kiev Automat' and dates it, with a 'possibly', to 1965–68. The pre-series cameras of 1964 are, according to sovietcams, identical to the press prototype, which had the name stamped on the front plate, АВТОМАТ in Cyrillic on the top plate and a 'white' Helios-65 (a chrome barrel, as Eckman reads the picture); the pre-series lenses were black.
Second version: name on the top plate: sovietcams' second version runs from a transitional camera of 1967 to early 1968, through an export-marked type of 1968–72, to the late camera of 1968–75 with the accessory shoe on the prism. camera-wiki names this version the 'Kiev-10 Automat' and dates it 1969–74, two years later than the serials sovietcams records; the dated bodies support sovietcams. Abramov also mentions, without dating them, a film-movement indicator, detachable fittings for accessories and a changed lens barrel among the running changes.

Serial-range notes

the first two digits: Arsenal's year-first convention holds on every Kiev-10 sovietcams records: #640005 and #6400066 are 1964 cameras, #6500702 1965, #6706942 1967 and #7403885 1974. The lens is numbered separately: the Helios-65 Automat on Runner1616's Commons camera is #662320, a 1966 lens. sovietcams prints the early series camera once as #64000066 and once as #6400066; the seven-digit form fits the convention.
#67…: 1967 is the changeover year, and sovietcams has 1967 cameras of both versions: #6703562, #6703709 and #6706638 with the name on the front, #6706942 with it on top. A 67 serial on its own does not say which version a camera is.

Specifications

Format: 24×36mm on 135 film
Finder: fixed pentaprism, instant-return mirror; Fresnel screen with a microprism circle and matte collar · 87% coverage
Shutter: metal fan-type focal-plane shutter: copper-coloured blades swinging about a common pivot, each curtain three metal sectors folding into a stack, with a spring damper (ru.wikipedia; Arisov; Eckman). Designed by Alexander Gelgar and I. Batyuta (Kosmo Foto) and used only in the Kiev-10 and Kiev-15 (Kosmo Foto; ru.wikipedia) · 1/2s – 1/1000, B (Abramov; Arisov) · flash sync X, 1/60 and slower; PC socket only, no hot shoe (Arisov; camera-wiki) · no self-timer
Film advance: single-stroke lever, its tip sliding in a slot in the back panel to the right of the eyepiece; automatic resetting frame counter in a window on the top plate (Arisov; ru.wikipedia)
Back: hinged. The release button hides under the rewind crank, which folds out of the base plate and drives the rewind fork at the top of the gate through a linkage (Arisov; ru.wikipedia; Ivan Lo)
Meter: Selenium cell behind a trapezoid window on the front of the prism housing, above the lens; no battery. Shutter-priority automatic exposure: the lens has no aperture ring, and a wheel on the front at the photographer's right, below the shutter release, carries the stops and an 'A'. In 'A' the camera stops the lens down to the metered aperture as the release is pressed; the long, heavy release stroke is what closes the diaphragm, and a trapped galvanometer needle limits it (Kosmo Foto; Arisov; ru.wikipedia). With a stop set on the wheel the camera works manually and the needle still reads. Film speed on the inner disc of the shutter-speed dial, in GOST and DIN (Osborne; Arisov). camera-wiki notes that several sources wrongly describe a CdS TTL meter; through-the-lens metering came with the Kiev-15.
Designed by: Gelgar Alexander — designed the fan-bladed metal shutter (Kosmo Foto); ru.wikipedia cites his shutter patent of 1958 · Batyuta I. — co-designer of the shutter (Kosmo Foto); ru.wikipedia cites his shutter patents of 1958 and 1961
Weight: 1080 g
Dimensions: 158 × 102 × 93 (ru.wikipedia, citing the 1976 catalogue Любительская фотокиноаппаратура, p. 35) mm
Country: Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR)
Accessories: M39×1 adapter for Zenit-thread lenses, used stopped down (Arisov; ru.wikipedia); Compton describes his as an M42 adapter · Extension ring for close-ups (ru.wikipedia) · Detachable cold-shoe bracket that fits the eyepiece surround (Arisov; ru.wikipedia; Compton) · Boxed with yellow and orange filters, a metal cable release and an ever-ready case (Compton, from his boxed camera) · Lenses came in clear plastic bubble cases whose bases serve as rear caps (Osborne)

The finder field is 22×34mm (Abramov), 86.5% of the frame by Arisov's count and 87% in ru.wikipedia. ru.wikipedia calls the microprism the first in the USSR. The right of the field carries an aperture scale (f/2, 4, 8 and 16 marked, dots between) with a needle showing the aperture the automation will set, and two tinted flags: the upper one takes the lens's maximum aperture through the mount, the lower one blocks stops that cannot be used at the set speed and film speed; with the needle beyond a flag the release locks (Arisov). Osborne saw heavy vignetting in the finder of his Kiev-10 with the Mir-1 Automat, and none on his Kiev-15.

Figures we worked out rather than found: The 1966 date of the Helios-65 Automat #662320 on the Commons camera is read from the year-first serial convention, not stated by the photographer.

Where sources disagree

Years

1965–1974 — Abramov (photohistory.ru); ru.wikipedia; Arisov (fotoussr.ru)
1964–1975 — sovietcams; Mike Eckman; ru.wikipedia's note citing Suglob, 1200 фотоаппаратов из СССР (2009), p. 474
From 1964 — Osborne (cjo.info); Yarovitsyn (Kosmo Foto), who calls 1965 the official date but knows cameras marked 1964
Kiev Automat possibly 1965–68, Kiev-10 Automat 1969–74 — camera-wiki

Better supported: 1965–1974 for series production

The 1964 cameras exist, but sovietcams describes the first of them as a very small pre-series, so 1965 is kept as the start of series production. The latest dated body seen is #7403885 of 1974, which supports Abramov's end date; no 1975 serial has been found.

Years

from 1967 — sovietcams, from dated bodies (#6706942), with a transitional type of 1967–early 1968
from 1969 — camera-wiki, with a 'possibly'

Better supported: 1967

Weight (grams)

1080 g — ru.wikipedia, citing the 1976 catalogue Любительская фотокиноаппаратура, p. 35
1028 g with the 50mm lens — Osborne (cjo.info), weighed
860 g body only — Arisov (fotoussr.ru), his own camera

Better supported: 1080

The catalogue figure is kept; it does not say whether it includes a lens.

What reviewers say

Roman Yarovitsyn, Kosmo Foto, "The Soviet Cybertruck" (blog) — Sets the Kiev-10 beside the Konica Auto-Reflex and compares their mechanisms, with photographs of the Konica's insides: the same trap-needle automation and differential gearing, but an original Arsenal bayonet with body-controlled aperture and a selenium cell that needs no battery. He calls it the most cumbersome Soviet 35mm SLR, with a stiff release that also closes the iris, and still urges collectors to own one.
Christopher J Osborne (blog) — His favourite of the two Automat bodies: sleeker than the Kiev-15, and easy to set up without a manual thanks to DIN as well as GOST marking and plainly labelled dials. 1028 g with the 50mm; his worked apart from heavy finder vignetting with the 37mm Mir-1.
I. Arisov, Fototekhnika SSSR (blog) — A control-by-control walk-through of a 1971 camera whose automation still worked, refusing to fire until he chose a brighter scene. He likes the large finder and the clever aperture scale but thinks shutter priority a prestige feature, and prefers to use the camera as an aperture-priority semi-automatic, which also works with M39 lenses.
Iain Compton, Serialforeigner (blog) — A 1969 camera bought boxed and apparently unused in Kyiv, with all its accessories: it works apart from erratic frame spacing and occasional half-frame advances. Huge and heavy, heavier than his Kiev-60; the Helios-81 is a bit soft wide open, and he would not take it on anything important.

History

The Kiev-10 was Arsenal’s first 35mm single-lens reflex, and unlike the factory’s Contax-derived rangefinders and its Salyut, copied from the Hasselblad 1600F, it is not a copy of any camera. Osborne and Eckman see the Zeiss Ikon Contarex’s influence in its body-mounted aperture control, nothing more. It has its own bayonet, the Kiev Automat mount with a 44mm register, and lenses with no aperture ring, stopped down from the body. Exposure is automatic with shutter priority from a large selenium cell on the front of the prism, so it needs no battery. The shutter is a metal focal-plane design whose copper-coloured blades swing about a common pivot at the bottom of the gate (Eckman). Alexander Gelgar and I. Batyuta designed it, and only the Kiev-10 and its successor, the Kiev-15, ever used it. Abramov dates production from 1965 to 1974 and gives the common belief that at least 50,000 were made. He also calls it the world’s first automatic SLR. Kosmo Foto’s Roman Yarovitsyn makes the narrower case that it came before the Konica Auto-Reflex as the first with a focal-plane shutter and interchangeable lenses. Both claims depend on a start date that is not settled: sovietcams records a very short pre-series in 1964, #640005 among it, while the official date is 1965.

The camera is large, angular and heavy: 1080 g in the 1976 Soviet catalogue figure that ru.wikipedia cites, and 1028 g with the 50mm lens on Christopher Osborne’s scales. The controls are spread around the body. The shutter and film-speed dial is on the left of the top plate and is turned by its knurled edge from behind. The release is a big black key hanging off the front beside the prism, with the aperture wheel, stops and ‘A’, below it. The advance lever moves in a slot in the back, and the rewind crank folds out of the base, hiding the back release. Pressing the release is what closes the diaphragm, and the long, heavy stroke every owner mentions is the price of that. The automation itself is a trapped galvanometer needle that stops the lens closing at the right point. In the finder a needle on an aperture scale shows the stop the camera will choose, and two flags fence off what the lens and the light allow. With the needle outside them the release locks. Arisov points out that turning the speed dial until the needle meets a stop set on the wheel makes the camera an aperture-priority semi-automatic, and that this also works with the M39 Zenit-thread lenses Arsenal’s adapter took.

There are two versions, and the engraving tells them apart. The first, from the 1964 pre-series to 1967, has КИЕВ 10 on the front plate beside the prism and АВТОМАТ on the top plate, and was normally sold with the Helios-65 Automat 2/50. camera-wiki calls it the Kiev Automat. The second has the name on the top plate. sovietcams’ dated bodies put the change in 1967, two years earlier than camera-wiki’s 1969. The Arsenal logo above the serial on the back and the Helios-81 Automat 2/53 arrived in the same year. Within each version sovietcams separates further types by strap lugs, export or Russian ‘made in USSR’ marking, and the move of the flash socket from its first position to the body below the aperture wheel. The last cameras have an accessory shoe on the prism. None of these has a hot shoe, which is the quickest way to tell a Kiev-10 from a Kiev-15, along with the selenium window. Abramov records Kiev-11 prototypes from the later 1960s, one with its cell moved to the left of the body. None was series-made. A grey-paint example numbered 6600002 was offered at Leitz Photographica Auction with a €10,000 starting price and went unsold.

Osborne and Eckman count five Automat lenses: the Mir-20 20mm, Mir-1 37mm, Helios-81 50mm, Jupiter-9 85mm and Jupiter-11 135mm. To these come the earlier Helios-65 50mm, and, from Abramov’s lens pages, the Era-6 Automat 50mm f/1.5 sold with the Kiev-15 and the Granit-11 zoom with an Automat rear. They fit only the Kiev-10 and Kiev-15. Being body-controlled, they cannot be stopped down on anything else without rebuilding. Osborne found that no rear caps seem to have been made; the lenses came in plastic bubble cases whose bases serve instead.

When buying, assume the shutter and transport need attention. Iain Compton’s camera, unused in its box, still spaced frames erratically and sometimes advanced half a frame. Compton blames the fan shutter, which he calls fantastically complex, for most failures. Fire it at every speed with the back open, and check that the needle moves with the light. Yarovitsyn notes that the meter still works if the selenium has not degraded, and if the automation works the camera will refuse to fire in poor light, as Arisov’s 1971 example did. Make sure the lens’s diaphragm snaps shut freely when its lever is pushed, because the camera has only finger pressure to close it. The 290-rouble price usually quoted comes from a blog, not a price list.

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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.

Photographs

Kiev-10 Automat — First-version Kiev-10 with the Helios-65 Automat 2/50: КИЕВ 10 on the front plate, АВТОМАТ on the top plate — Runner1616, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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