Kiev-6S

Arsenal · Pentacon Six mount · 6×6cm on 120 or 220 roll film, chosen with a switch on the frame counter (Russian Wikipedia); 12 or 24 exposures (Vintage Camera Digest) · 1971

via machine translation — corrections welcome

Also known as: Kiev 6C · Kiev-6C · Kiev6C · Kiev 6S · Kiev-6S · Kiev6S · Kiev 6C TTL · Kiev-6C TTL · Kiev 6S TTL · Kiev-6S TTL · Kiew 6C · Kiew-6C · Kiew 6S · Kiew-6S · Киев-6С · Киев 6С · Киев-6С TTL · Київ-6С

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Kiev-6S (plain prism or waist-level finder)	Pentacon Six	1971–1980	—	—
Kiev-6S TTL	Pentacon Six	1978–1986	—	—

No production figures and no serial-number table have been published for the Kiev-6S or 6S TTL in the sources consulted. camera-wiki's rule that the first two digits of a Kiev-60 serial give the year is stated for the Kiev-60 only.
Weight: 2kg (Russian Wikipedia, which does not say whether the lens is included; Dusty Grain repeats it). No body-only weight is published, so weight_g is left empty.
English Wikipedia says export bodies read KIEV rather than КИЕВ on the nameplate, with Vega rather than Вега on the lens. No dated example of an export body was found, so it is recorded here, not as a variant.
Abramov's photohistory.ru shows a Kiev-6S fitted with a Kaleinar-2 from GOI, the prototype of the Kaleinar-3 150mm. The Kaleinar-2 was not a production lens.
The Kiev-S-SKD (Киев-С-СКД), a 'special remote camera' that Abramov dates 1967–1971 and says was made in about 33 sets, was a space camera, not a version of the Kiev-6S sold to the public. English Wikipedia calls it a modified Kiev 6S used on the Zond 6 and Zond 7 missions, with a motor wind, a remote release and space versions of the Vega-12, Tair-33 and Mir-3. Abramov's dates put it before the 1971 Kiev-6S, so which came first is not settled here.
camera-wiki says the original lenses were uncoated and 'mostly suitable for black and white work'. Russian Wikipedia describes the standard Vega-12B as coated (просветлённый). The two sources do not agree.
Dusty Grain says the Kiev-6S and Kiev-60 were made in parallel and that both had TTL versions from 1978. Russian Wikipedia dates the Kiev-60 TTL from 1984, and pentaconsix.com the Kiev 60 from about 1984.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Shutter release on the front left = Kiev-6S or 6S TTL; on the front right = Kiev-60 (camera-wiki; Russian Wikipedia)
120/220 switch on the frame counter, 24 frames on 220: the Kiev-60 is 120 only (Russian Wikipedia; pentaconsix.com for the Kiev-60)
Strap lugs on the body, where the Kiev-60 has two small studs from which, pentaconsix.com says, the strap clips can easily come off
No threaded cold-shoe socket on the body: the Kiev-60 has threads on its left side for a screw-in cold shoe, and the 6S takes a separate flash bracket (English Wikipedia; Russian Wikipedia)
Pentacon Six breech-lock mount with a turning ring on the front. Soviet lenses for it carry Cyrillic Б (Latin B) after the name, e.g. Vega-12Б, Mir-26Б. Lenses ending in В (Latin V) are for the Kiev-88 and Salyut and do not fit. Western sellers often write that В as 'B' too, so check the mount, not the letter (Russian Wikipedia for the Б lens list)
Usually sold with the Vega-12B 90mm f/2.8 (Russian Wikipedia); pentaconsix.com contrasts it with the Volna 80mm f/2.8 that became the Kiev-60's standard lens, so a Volna-3 suggests, but does not prove, a Kiev-60 kit
Stop-down lever for depth-of-field preview on the body (Russian Wikipedia calls it a diaphragm repeater; Vintage Camera Digest)

Kiev-6S (plain prism or waist-level finder):

Shutter release on the front LEFT of the body, beside the lens; the Kiev-60 moved it to the right (camera-wiki; Russian Wikipedia; Abramov)
Supplied with a non-metering pentaprism or the folding waist-level hood; English Wikipedia calls the prism 'non-metered'; Russian Wikipedia prices the 6S 'with a pentaprism without TTL'
120/220 switch on the frame counter (Russian Wikipedia)
КИЕВ on the nameplate and Вега on the lens on home-market bodies; English Wikipedia says export bodies read KIEV and the lens Vega

Kiev-6S TTL:

Uncoupled CdS metering prism with two LEDs in the finder and calculator dials, switched on before use (Russian Wikipedia; Dusty Grain); the cells sit in the prism, not the body (Dusty Grain)
English Wikipedia says the front plate changed, with the Kiev name written in chrome on a black ground
Release still on the left, and the 120/220 switch is kept: those two features tell it apart from a Kiev-60 TTL carrying the same kind of prism (Russian Wikipedia; Dusty Grain)
Vintage Camera Digest describes an 'old style' prism dial with DIN and GOST film-speed scales, which the reviewer could not find a way to adjust

Kiev-6S (plain prism or waist-level finder): The first version. Russian Wikipedia gives its retail price as 500 roubles in the late 1970s, with the non-TTL prism. Abramov dates it 1971–1980 and says that a TTL prism version was made "subsequently". camera-wiki's general statement that the 6C has TTL metering in the removable prism applies to the TTL version, not this one.
Kiev-6S TTL: Russian Wikipedia says the camera took the name Kiev-6S TTL once the uncoupled TTL meter had been developed and built into the prism, and that it was made from 1978 to 1986. Dusty Grain says the metering prism was the only change. The price was 690 roubles in the first half of the 1980s (Russian Wikipedia) and 690 roubles retail in 1985 (Abramov). The meter is used by setting film speed and maximum aperture on the prism, turning its speed dial until both LEDs light, and copying the shutter speed and aperture the calculator shows onto the body and the lens. Both LEDs lit means correct exposure; the left one alone means under and the right one alone over (Dusty Grain).

Specifications

Format: 6×6cm on 120 or 220 roll film, chosen with a switch on the frame counter (Russian Wikipedia); 12 or 24 exposures (Vintage Camera Digest) · 12 on 120, 24 on 220 exposures
Finder (eye-level): interchangeable pentaprism: non-metering on the Kiev-6S, uncoupled CdS TTL metering prism on the Kiev-6S TTL
Finder (waist-level): folding hood with magnifier, interchangeable with the prism
Shutter: horizontal cloth focal plane, mechanical · 1/2s to 1/1000, B (Russian Wikipedia, Abramov, camera-wiki, Dusty Grain); Vintage Camera Digest's specification table says 2s · flash sync X at 1/30 and slower, by PC cable; no shoe on the body, the flash goes on a separate bracket (Russian Wikipedia; Abramov) · no self-timer
Film advance: single-stroke lever on the top plate, which also cocks the shutter; the mirror comes down when the shutter is cocked, not after the exposure (Russian Wikipedia; Vintage Camera Digest)
Back: hinged and fixed, on a cast aluminium-alloy body; spools are released by twisting and pulling knobs on the base plate (Russian Wikipedia; Vintage Camera Digest)
Meter: None in the body. The Kiev-6S TTL prism uses a CdS cell. Russian Wikipedia gives its power as three RTs-53 (РЦ-53) mercury-zinc cells or three D-0.06 NiCd cells, with the PX625 as today's replacement, and its film-speed range as 16–500 GOST. Abramov gives 8–1000 GOST (DIN 10–31). Dusty Grain gives three LR44 cells. See `disputed`.
Motor drive: Not compatible
Dimensions: 172 × 140 × 157 (Russian Wikipedia; the source does not say whether a lens is fitted) mm
Country: Ukrainian SSR (Soviet Union)
Original price: Soviet retail list prices, in roubles: 500 roubles for the Kiev-6S with the non-TTL prism in the late 1970s, and 690 roubles for the Kiev-6S TTL in the first half of the 1980s (Russian Wikipedia). Abramov gives 690 roubles retail in 1985, and Vintage Camera Digest gives 690 roubles as the "original list price". No export or dealer price was found.
Accessories: Kit in the 1980s (Russian Wikipedia): camera with lens and TTL prism; front and rear lens caps; folding waist-level hood; flash bracket; UV-1× and ZhZ-1.4× (light yellow-green) filters; lens hood; cable release; body cap; two extension rings of 19 and 48mm in the Б mount; strap, case, box and manual · Adapters to fit the Б-mount lenses on M42 and other focal-plane bodies, possible because of the 74.1mm register (Russian Wikipedia) · Tripod socket with a 3/8-inch thread (Russian Wikipedia)

Field of view 49 × 51.5mm on the prism (Russian Wikipedia; Abramov). The finder lifts straight off after a small knob with a red dot is lined up (Dusty Grain). The TTL prism meters at any aperture, over a luminance range of 1.6 to 13,000 cd/m² (Russian Wikipedia; Abramov).

Field of view 53 × 53mm (Russian Wikipedia; Abramov)

Where sources disagree

Years

Kiev-6S 1971–1980, Kiev-6S TTL 1978–1986 — Russian Wikipedia; G. Abramov, photohistory.ru
1971 to 1984, with the metering prism only after 1980 — Vintage Camera Digest

Better supported: 1971–1986

The two Russian sources agree. Russian Wikipedia dates the Kiev-60 TTL that replaced the 6S TTL from 1984, and pentaconsix.com (citing Princelle) dates the Kiev 60 from about 1984, so some overlap with the 6S TTL is likely.

Speeds

1/2s to 1/1000, B — Russian Wikipedia, Abramov, camera-wiki, Dusty Grain
2s to 1/1000, B — Vintage Camera Digest's specification table, whose own photo caption says there is no 1-second speed

Better supported: 1/2s to 1/1000, B

Meter

16–500 GOST; three RTs-53 mercury or D-0.06 NiCd cells, PX625 today — Russian Wikipedia
8–1000 GOST or DIN 10–31; shutter speeds 1/1000 to 8s and apertures f/1.4 to f/32 on the calculator — Abramov
DIN 10–31, GOST 8–500 — Vintage Camera Digest
Three LR44 cells — Dusty Grain

Vintage Camera Digest found two button cells in its prism with small coins as spacers, and the reviewer replaced them with hearing-aid cells packed out with aluminium foil. A prism designed for thicker mercury cells would explain the spacers.

Original price

500 roubles (non-TTL prism, late 1970s) and 690 roubles (6S TTL, first half of the 1980s) — Russian Wikipedia
690 roubles retail in 1985 — Abramov
690 roubles as the 'original list price', not tied to a version — Vintage Camera Digest

Consistent once the 690 is read as the TTL price. None of the three cites a price list.

What reviewers say

Steven Broome, Vintage Camera Digest (blog) — His eBay Kiev 6C with Vega-12B and metering prism focused wrongly until he realigned the screen and adjusted the frame spacing, and the meter read hot until he compensated. After that: big, bulky and clunky, with an awkward left-hand release and fiddly loading, but good value into medium format with access to the Zeiss Jena Pentacon Six lenses. The Vega-12B is soft wide open and good stopped down a couple of stops.
Jorge Ferrufino, Dusty Grain (blog) — A rough, characterful camera rather than a professional tool: the long advance must be done in one even stroke or frames overlap or are lost, and copies vary widely in quality. The meter and shutter work, Arsenal's lenses are better than its bodies, and he puts the eBay price at about $100–300, up from about $60 five years before.

History

The Kiev-6S is a 6×6 single-lens reflex on 120 or 220 film, made by the Arsenal plant in Kyiv from 1971. Arsenal’s earlier medium-format cameras, the Salyut line, followed the Hasselblad 1600F, with interchangeable magazines. The 6S instead has the layout of a 35mm SLR, scaled up: a horizontal cloth focal-plane shutter from 1/2 second to 1/1000, a lever wind that also cocks the shutter, a fixed hinged back, and a pentaprism or folding hood on top. Russian Wikipedia’s description is that it differs from a 35mm reflex only in size and weight, about 2kg. Its lens mount is the breech-lock of the East German Praktisix and Pentacon Six. Abramov calls it unified with the Pentacon Six mount, and camera-wiki calls the camera “based very closely” on the Pentacon Six. Western sellers usually write the name Kiev 6C, a reading of the Cyrillic С as a Latin C.

The 6S was the first Arsenal camera in that mount sold to the public, and it brought the Soviet lenses marked Б (Latin B) together with the Carl Zeiss Jena lenses already made for the Praktisix. The standard lens was the Vega-12B 90mm f/2.8, with an automatic diaphragm and a stop-down lever on the body. Russian Wikipedia lists a range of Б-mount lenses around it, from the Zodiak-8B 30mm fisheye through the Mir-26B, Mir-3B and Mir-38B wides, the Vega-28B 120mm and Kaleinar-3B 150mm, to the Jupiter-36B 250mm and a Tair-33B 300mm. Abramov shows a 6S fitted with a Kaleinar-2, the GOI prototype of the Kaleinar-3. The mount’s 74.1mm register is also why these lenses adapt readily to M42 and other focal-plane bodies.

There are two versions, and they differ in the finder. The Kiev-6S of 1971–1980 came with a plain, non-metering prism or a waist-level hood. Russian Wikipedia gives its retail price as 500 roubles in the late 1970s. Once Arsenal had built an uncoupled CdS meter into the prism, the camera was sold as the Kiev-6S TTL, from 1978 to 1986 by Russian Wikipedia and Abramov. It cost 690 roubles in the first half of the 1980s, and Abramov gives the same 690 roubles retail for 1985. English Wikipedia adds a changed front plate with the name in chrome on black. Vintage Camera Digest instead ends the 6S in 1984 and says the metering prism came only after 1980. The meter is read through two LEDs in the finder and transferred by hand from a calculator on the prism. The sources disagree on its film-speed range and its cells, which may reflect more than one prism.

To tell a 6S from the Kiev-60 that replaced it in 1984, look at the release. It is on the front left of the 6S and on the front right of the Kiev-60. Russian Wikipedia says the left-hand button drew many complaints from photographers. The 6S also keeps a 120/220 switch on the frame counter and has strap lugs rather than studs. It has no threaded socket for a cold shoe, so the flash goes on a separate bracket, synchronised at 1/30 by cable. Check the letter after a lens name before buying lenses for it. Б fits; В (Latin V) is the Kiev-88 and Salyut mount and does not, and Western sellers often write both as “B”. No production figures or serial tables have been published for either version.

Both user reviews describe the same faults. Steven Broome’s camera, bought on eBay with the Vega-12B and a metering prism, focused wrongly until he realigned the focusing screen, a problem he found well documented on the 6C and the Kiev-60. He also adjusted the frame spacing, and his meter read hot. Jorge Ferrufino warns that the long advance has to be completed in one even stroke, or frames overlap or are skipped, and that one copy can differ widely from the next. When buying, run a test roll for frame spacing and focus accuracy, check every shutter speed, and fit fresh cells to test the TTL prism. Broome found two button cells in his prism with coins as spacers, and replaced them with hearing-aid cells packed out with foil. camera-wiki notes that 6C bodies generally sell for less than Kiev-60s in comparable condition.

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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-6S TTL — Andshel, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

More sample photos elsewhere

These photographers keep all rights to their work — enjoy it at the source.

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