Kiev-19
Arsenal · Nikon F mount · 24×36mm on 135 film; hinged, removable back · 1985
via machine translation — corrections welcomeAlso known as: Kiev 19 · Kiev-19 · Kiev19 · KIEV-19 · Kiew 19 · Kiew-19 · Kyiv-19 · Kyiv 19 · Arsenal Kiev 19 · Arsenal Kiev-19 · Kiev 19 SLR · Киев-19 · Киев 19
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kiev-19 | Nikon F | 1985–1994 | #9006293 — a 1990 body described on asminhascamaras.blogspot.com #9008855 — collection-appareils.fr's catalogued example | No production figure has been published |
- Other versions are reported but not shown here as variants. A Portuguese collector's blog, citing sovietcams.com, lists four types: an early type, the common type, an export version with the nameplate in Roman letters (KIEV-19), and a very uncommon all-black body. It describes none of them beyond that. A reader of Mike Eckman's review (Dave E., 2021) says his Kiev-19 is a black export body without the split-image aid. No photographed, identified example of either the Latin-nameplate or the black body has been seen here; a black Kiev should be compared closely with the Commons photographs before it is taken as factory work.
- Price: ru.wikipedia states that the camera cost 150 roubles (a Soviet retail list price) in the 1980s. The figure is not footnoted and no period price list has been seen, so no structured price is given.
- The Kiev-19M is a separate model with open-aperture metering through the AI coupling, plastic covers on most bodies and a screw-in grip. Kosmo Foto dates it to 1988; ru.wikipedia, citing 1200 фотоаппаратов из СССР, to 1991. The Mirage 19M export name and the Ihagee Elbaflex rebadge are 19M matters, not Kiev-19 ones.
- No production figure for the Kiev-19 has been published. Eckman calls it the most successful and longest-lived Kiev 35mm SLR, which is a judgement, not a figure.
How to tell them apart
- КИЕВ-19 on the prism nameplate, speed dial on the front beside the lens, and no self-timer lever: a Kiev-19
- Same layout with a self-timer and speeds to 1/1000: a Kiev-20
- Plastic top and base, a screw-in grip, or 19M on the nameplate: a Kiev-19M
- Top speed 1/500 on the front dial
Kiev-19:
- КИЕВ-19 in Cyrillic on a black nameplate across the front of the prism housing; satin-chrome top plate and prism, black leatherette (Wikimedia Commons photographs)
- Shutter-speed dial on the FRONT of the body, to the right of the lens as you face the camera, reading 1/2 to 1/500 and B (Abramov; collection-appareils.fr; Commons photographs)
- No self-timer: ru.wikipedia lists none, and Tim Lewis and a Kosmo Foto reader say it was one of the Kiev-20 features dropped
- Large stop-down lever beside the mount that also switches the meter on; there is no separate meter button (Jürgen Becker; ru.wikipedia)
- Metal top plate and no screw-in hand grip; the Kiev-19M has plastic covers and a grip (Kosmo Foto, which notes that early 19Ms still had a metal top plate)
- Film-speed dial in GOST units under the rewind knob (collection-appareils.fr; Jürgen Becker)
- Kiev-19: The standard body as photographed on Wikimedia Commons and described by every reviewer cited here. Supplied with the MC Helios-81N 2/50 (Abramov; ru.wikipedia), marked MC HELIOS-81H in Latin letters on the examples photographed. Bodies also turn up with the earlier Helios-81M 2/53 (one is pictured on Commons), and with the Arsat-H 50/2, which Kosmo Foto names as the usual Kiev-19M kit lens. The camera has no coupling to the lens at all, so any of these, or a Nikon lens, meters the same way.
Serial-range notes
- the first two digits
- Arsenal numbered the body with its year first, so #9006293 is a 1990 camera (Becker and asminhascamaras, citing camerapedia, both state the rule for this model). Becker says the lens is numbered the same way, so a kit lens carries its own year, which need not match the body's.
Specifications
- Format
- 24×36mm on 135 film; hinged, removable back
- Finder
- fixed pentaprism; Fresnel screen with a microprism ring and matte collar; a split-image centre (Dodin wedges) on some or all bodies, see notes · 93% coverage
- Shutter
- mechanical focal-plane shutter with metal blades travelling vertically (ru.wikipedia: two pairs of blades; Eckman: two blades); it runs without a battery, which powers only the meter (Eckman; Snaps From Paps) · 1/2s – 1/500, B · flash sync X, 1/60 (ru.wikipedia; Snaps From Paps); hot shoe and a PC socket (Eckman), the socket on the prism housing per collection-appareils.fr · no self-timer
- Film advance
- single-stroke lever with a stand-off and a working position (ru.wikipedia); no multiple-exposure facility, unlike the Kiev-20
- Back
- hinged, with a concealed latch, and removable; the frame counter resets when it is opened (ru.wikipedia)
- Meter
- Through the lens at working aperture only: the stop-down lever closes the lens and switches the meter on together (Becker; ru.wikipedia). ru.wikipedia gives two CdS cells, centre-weighted with priority to the lower part of the frame, citing Sovetskoe Foto 1987, and says the meter is slow in dim light. Exposure is set by matching LEDs: ru.wikipedia and collection-appareils.fr say both LEDs lit (or blinking) means correct, + alone over and − alone under. Film speed is set in GOST units; see `disputed` for the range and the cells.
- Weight
- 708 g
- Dimensions
- 90 × 96 × 145 (ru.wikipedia infobox, no units or orientation given); Kamerastore lists 145 × 100 × 52mm mm
- Country
- Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR)
- Accessories
- Ever-ready case; Tim Lewis notes that its top half is permanently attached to the bottom
Abramov and ru.wikipedia give the field as 23×35mm, 93% of the frame. Abramov describes the screen with Dodin wedges, and Eckman's and asminhascamaras' bodies have a split image, but ru.wikipedia says only a small share of the cameras have the wedges, and a reader of Mike Eckman's review reports a black export body without them. Two LEDs, + and −, sit in the finder; Becker compares the screen to Nikon's K type.
Where sources disagree
- Last
- 1992 — Abramov (photohistory.ru), with a question mark on the 1985 start
- 1994 — Mike Eckman, Jürgen Becker ('ca.'), Tim Lewis (Snaps From Paps, 'about'), asminhascamaras and Kamerastore
- '1980s–1990s' — ru.wikipedia infobox; c.1990 — collection-appareils.fr
Better supported: 1994
More sources give 1994, but none of them is a factory record; Abramov's 1992 is not refuted by anything cited here.
- The model it replaced
- The Kiev-20, as a simplified, cheaper version — Abramov ('упрощенный вариант'), ru.wikipedia, Tim Lewis, a Kosmo Foto reader (Mikhail Mandrigin) and a reader of Eckman's review (Dave E.)
- The Kiev-17 — Mike Eckman ('a replacement to the earlier Kiev-17'); Kosmo Foto's article says the 17 gave way to the 19 in 1985
Better supported: The Kiev-20
Abramov dates the Kiev-20 1982–86 and the Kiev-19 from 1985, and the 19 keeps the 20's body layout with features taken away, which supports the 20. The Kiev-17 accounts skip the 20 altogether.
- Weight (grams)
- 708 g body, 918 g with lens — Mike Eckman
- 706 g without lens — ru.wikipedia infobox
- 665 g body and 335 g for the Mir-24N — Jürgen Becker
- about 32 oz — Tim Lewis, for the body
- 911 g — Kamerastore (dealer listing) and asminhascamaras, without saying what it covers
Better supported: 708
- Meter film-speed range
- GOST 16–500 — ru.wikipedia
- ISO 25–400 — Tim Lewis, camera-wiki, Kamerastore, asminhascamaras
- ISO 20–640 by Becker's count, though the dial's highest GOST setting is 500 — Jürgen Becker
GOST and ISO arithmetic speeds are close but not identical; the dial is marked in GOST, so the ISO figures are conversions.
- Meter cells
- two LR44 (357) button cells — Mike Eckman, Jürgen Becker
- two SR44 — Tim Lewis
- two SC-32 / МЦ-0.105, equivalent to LR43 — ru.wikipedia
- one 3 V battery in the base, which two LR44s can replace — collection-appareils.fr
Owners run it on two LR44 or SR44 cells; the battery only powers the meter.
What reviewers say
- Mike Eckman (blog) — Scores it 9.0: a modern-looking camera with good ergonomics, a large bright finder and a Helios-81N that gave sharp, almost too clean results, and he recommends picking one up. Against it, a loose, uneven advance, plastic stop-down and lens-release levers with play, and a meter LED in his sample that stayed lit.
- Jürgen Becker, through the F-Mount (blog) — A solid, well-built body about the size of a Nikkormat that takes every F-mount lens with an aperture ring, non-AI included. He likes the stop-down lever that also switches the meter on; he dislikes the centred finder, which leaves too little body to grip. One of his two LEDs was dead. The Mir-24N tested with it is sharp in the centre but flares badly.
- Tim Lewis, Snaps From Paps (blog) — A 1992 body bought factory-sealed with a new Helios-81 and case: big, heavy and loud, and it behaved oddly until it had been cycled a dozen times. He finds the 1/500 top speed only a nuisance when shooting wide open in sun, and calls it a well-priced hidden jewel, dependable because it is simple.
History
The Kiev-19 is a 35mm SLR made by the Arsenal plant in Kiev from 1985. It is a simple camera on the Nikon F bayonet, which Soviet literature called the “Н” (N) mount. It has a mechanical metal focal-plane shutter from 1/2 to 1/500 and B, a fixed pentaprism showing 93% of the frame, and a through-the-lens meter that reads only with the lens stopped down. Abramov and ru.wikipedia both describe it as a simplified, cheaper Kiev-20. It keeps the 20’s body and its odd shutter-speed dial on the front beside the lens, but drops the 1/1000 speed, the self-timer, multiple exposure and the AI coupling that let the 20 meter at full aperture. ru.wikipedia gives its price as 150 roubles in the 1980s, though without a source. Mike Eckman and Kosmo Foto describe it instead as the replacement for the meterless Kiev-17. Either way it outlived both. Abramov ends it in 1992, and Eckman, Becker and Tim Lewis in or about 1994.
It came with the MC Helios-81N 2/50, engraved MC HELIOS-81H on the lens, and the rest of Arsenal’s N range was made for it and its siblings. ru.wikipedia’s table lists the Mir-20N and Mir-24N wides, the Volna-8N 1.2/50, the Kaleinar-5N 100mm, the Telear-N 200mm, the Yashma-4N 300mm, and the Granit-11N and Yantar-14N zooms. Because the body has no coupling to the lens at all, it does not care what is mounted. Jürgen Becker’s summary is that it takes every F-mount lens with an aperture ring, non-AI Nikkors included. Metering is the same for all of them. The large lever beside the mount stops the lens down and switches the meter on at once, and two LEDs in the finder do the rest. ru.wikipedia and collection-appareils.fr say both lit means correct exposure. Holding the lever while you turn the dials, Tim Lewis notes, lets you watch the finder brighten or darken as you go.
In photographs, the Kiev-19 is a satin-chrome body with black leatherette and КИЕВ-19 in Cyrillic on a black plate across the prism. The speed dial is a knob on the front to the right of the lens as you face it, and there is no self-timer. A self-timer and a 1/1000 on the dial mean a Kiev-20. Plastic covers, a screw-in grip or 19M on the plate mean the later Kiev-19M, which added open-aperture metering. Kosmo Foto dates the 19M to 1988 and ru.wikipedia to 1991, and the first 19Ms still had a metal top plate, so check the name before the material. An export body with KIEV-19 in Roman letters and an all-black body are reported, the black one without the split-image centre, but neither is documented with photographs in the sources used here. The serial number gives the year in its first two digits.
When buying, test the meter first, with two fresh LR44 or SR44 cells. Eckman’s sample had a + LED that stayed lit whatever the light, and one of Becker’s two LEDs was dead. The battery powers nothing else, so a body with a dead meter still takes pictures. Run every speed several times. Lewis’s body, sealed in its box since 1992, behaved strangely until it had been fired a dozen times, and Eckman found the advance loose and uneven and play in the plastic stop-down and lens-release levers. Check the battery compartment for leaked cells. Kits are often mixed: the lens on a Kiev-19 may be the older Helios-81M 2/53 or the Arsat-H 50/2 that Kosmo Foto names as the Kiev-19M’s usual kit lens. Since the body ignores the lens’s coupling, any of them works the same way on it.
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
Live listings
Listings updated 2026-11-09. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.