Kiev-90

Arsenal · Pentacon Six mount · 4.5×6cm on 120 film, 16 frames a roll (Russian Wikipedia, whose infobox also lists 220). The frame is horizontal with the camera held normally: TRA notes that it has to be turned through 90° for an upright picture, which is close to impossible with the waist-level finder · 1983

Also known as: Kiev 90 · Kiev-90 · Kiev90 · Kiew 90 · Kiew-90 · Kijev 90 · Киев-90 · Киев 90

Variants & identification

Variant	Mount	Years	Serial ranges	Production
Kiev-90, first version (1983–84)	Pentacon Six	1983–1984	#8300001 — 1983, the first camera, sold with MC Volna-3 #830320 and magazine #8300014 (Leitz Auction 39, November 2021)	Leitz Auction says 5 cameras were built in 1983; no figure for 1984 is published
Kiev-90, second version (1985 on)	Pentacon Six	1985–1990	#8800002 — 1988, sold with a 'special MC-Volna-3' #8902862 and magazines #8700141 and #8700182 (Westlicht/Leitz Auction 24, November 2013) #8800083 — 1988, 'a camera from the 1988 batch', with MC Volna-3 #8817813 and magazines #8700136 and #8400013 (Leitz Auction 42, September 2023)	Leitz Auction: 40 cameras in 1985 and parts for 200 in 1988, 'the total number of finished cameras remains unknown'

Auction results, all including buyer's premium: #8800002 (1988), shutter "not operable as usual", with lens, two magazines and both finders, €2,280 at Westlicht/Leitz Auction 24 in November 2013; #8800083 (1988), with lens, waist-level finder, two magazines, instructions, case and box, €7,200 at Leitz Auction 42 in September 2023; #8300001, the first camera, €21,600 at Leitz Auction 39 in November 2021.
Russian Wikipedia says that, according to reviews in Sovetskoe Foto, the Kiev-90 cost 1,500 roubles in the second half of the 1980s. No period price list was found, so the price field is left empty.
Assume any example does not work. McKeown (via camera-wiki) says the camera is very unreliable and the shutter in surviving examples is rarely working, and camera-wiki adds that McKeown in fact says "never working"; one of the two 1988 bodies Leitz sold was described as having its shutter "not operable as usual". TRA's camera, sold to him as in full working order, arrived jammed and heats up when batteries are put in; a Ukrainian retailer and repairer of Kiev equipment told him that "all K-90 cameras have electronic problems. It was an engineering mistake", and repairers in two countries could not fix it.
The Kiev 645 is a separate question. pentaconsix.com, after Braas, describes it as a 1991 factory prototype developed from the Kiev-90, with a right-hand grip containing a fast-wind lever and the release, a flash shoe, a new 75mm f/2.8 lens, a rotating finder head and a motor-drive coupling, which never entered production. Abramov lists a "Kiev-645, 1990" as a further modification of the Kiev-90. Russian Wikipedia says the Kiev-90 was also made under the name Kiev-645, and separately that a 6×4.5 Kiev-645 based on the Kiev-60 was made from the 1990s and later sold as the Arax-645. The listings named Kiev 645 are that Kiev-60-based camera and belong on the Kiev-60 page.
The Kiev-90 version of the lenses. TRA, after Princelle, says most Arsenal medium-format lenses were made available with the aperture tab in 1988. Russian Wikipedia names two standard lenses, an MC Volna-3B with mechanical transfer of the aperture value and an MC Volna-3A with electronic transfer, and says the camera meters stopped down with the first and at open aperture with the second; Abramov names the MC Volna-3A as the lens with a linkage passing the aperture value to the meter. The lenses in the auction photographs are engraved only MC ВОЛНА-3. TRA's special Zodiak-8 30mm fisheye for the Kiev-90 has had its maximum aperture re-engraved from 3.5 to 4 and stops at f/4, apparently because at f/3.5 its tab would not sit correctly against the body's.
No weight from a primary source: 1.6kg (Russian Wikipedia; Abramov), a listed 1.5kg (TRA), and 1,630g measured by TRA with the standard lens, prism, a loaded 120 back and batteries. weight_g is left empty because none of these says what it includes.

How to tell them apart (expand)

Black-painted trim and squarer corners than the Salyut and Kiev-88, which it otherwise resembles (camera-wiki); Leitz describes the design as inspired by the Mamiya 645
Pentacon Six-type breech-lock mount with an extra tab on the body at the bottom of the throat, which takes the aperture value from a matching finger on the Kiev-90 version of the lenses (TRA)
Shutter-speed knob on the left side marked B, 4c and 2c in green, 1–30 in red, 60–1000 in white and A in red, under an exposure-compensation dial marked +2 to −2 (TRA)
Large shutter-cocking knob with a fold-out crank on the right, and below it a small thumb switch with two settings, 3 (probably the Cyrillic З) and M (TRA)
Film magazines with a GOST film-speed dial behind a red locking button and three gold contacts that pass the film speed to the body (TRA); they do not fit a Kiev-88 (Russian Wikipedia)
Cyrillic markings on the nameplate and lens and GOST film speeds on the magazine dial, which TRA takes as a sign that the camera was designed for sale inside the USSR

Kiev-90, first version (1983–84):

A serial beginning 83 or 84; the first two digits are the year, as on other Arsenal cameras
In Leitz Auction's photographs of #8300001 there is no second release button on the top front corner of the body beside the finder, and the flash shoe sits low on the left side under the speed and compensation dials
КИЕВ-90 nameplate across the front of the finder; the box is printed 'фотоаппарат КИЕВ-90' with a '45×60' badge (Leitz Auction photographs of #8300001)
Lens engraved MC ВОЛНА-3 2,8/80 with no mount letter after the name (Leitz Auction photographs)

Kiev-90, second version (1985 on):

Two release buttons: the main one at the bottom front corner on the right, angled out and threaded for a cable release, and a small black button on the top front corner beside the finder (TRA, on a 1988 body; Princelle's 'double shutter release buttons')
Hot shoe on the left side behind the exposure-compensation dial, under a plastic cover, with a PC socket below the left strap lug (TRA)
A serial beginning 85 or later; TRA's camera and prism are dated 1988 and both of its backs 1987

Kiev-90, first version (1983–84): Abramov (photohistory.ru) says two versions were made, the first in 1983–84 and the second from 1985, differing in slightly altered controls, "in particular an additional release button and a different position of the flash shoe", in styling and in other details. He does not describe either version further; the identification points above are read from the auction photographs of the first camera against TRA's and Leitz's photographs of 1988 bodies, and should be treated as this page's comparison rather than a published list. A 120mm f/2.8 numbered 830006 and dated 1983, which Leitz Auction sold as a "prototype lens for the famous Kiev 90" under the title Vega-28B, is of the same year.
Kiev-90, second version (1985 on): The version of the 1988 cameras seen at auction and in TRA's review. TRA's 1988 body has a cloth shutter curtain, a slide-off finder held by a pin under a small chrome button, and a spring-loaded lens-locking ring that follows a tab on the Kiev-90 lenses. TRA observes that the mirror is down after the shutter has fired, which suggests an instant-return mirror, though his camera was jammed and he could not test it; Russian Wikipedia lists the mirror as instant-return. The mirror of his camera is yellow where Princelle describes a green-tinted mirror with a pink metering area; TRA suggests Princelle saw a different example or a different description.

Serial-range notes

the first two digits: The year of manufacture, as on Arsenal's other cameras: #8300001 is 1983 and #8800002 and #8800083 are 1988. Bodies, finders, magazines and lenses are dated separately: the 1988 body #8800002 came with a lens numbered 8902862, which on the same rule is 1989, and #8800083 with magazines numbered 87 and 84. A mixed outfit is normal.
#8300001: Leitz Auction describes it as "the first camera made with a special serial number". It made €21,600 including buyer's premium against an estimate of €10,000–12,000 at Leitz Auction 39 in November 2021, which is an auction result for a unique first-of-line camera and not a guide to an ordinary one.

Specifications

Format: 4.5×6cm on 120 film, 16 frames a roll (Russian Wikipedia, whose infobox also lists 220). The frame is horizontal with the camera held normally: TRA notes that it has to be turned through 90° for an upright picture, which is close to impossible with the waist-level finder · 16 on 120 (Russian Wikipedia) exposures
Finder (eye-level): interchangeable pentaprism with a long rear tube and dioptre adjustment, no meter of its own; slides forward off the body without removing the back (TRA)
Finder (waist-level): folding hood with magnifier; impractical for upright pictures with a horizontal 6×4.5 frame (TRA)
Shutter: cloth focal plane, travelling vertically across the short side of the frame, electronically timed (Russian Wikipedia; TRA; camera-wiki) · 4s–1/1000, B, plus A for automatic (Princelle; TRA; Russian Wikipedia) · flash sync X at 1/60 (Princelle; Russian Wikipedia) or 1/30 (Abramov); hot shoe and PC socket
Back: interchangeable film magazines with dark slides, changeable mid-roll; two supplied with the camera; a 35mm panoramic back was planned (Braas, via TRA) and appears in Arsenal's 1990 catalogue
Meter: In the body, not in the finder, so it works with any finder: a CdS cell behind the half-silvered reflex mirror (Nathan Dayton, The Kiev Report, 1995, quoted by TRA; Russian Wikipedia). Aperture-priority automatic, semi-automatic and manual modes with LED indication in the finder and ±2 exposure compensation. Open-aperture metering needs the Kiev-90 version of the lenses; other Pentacon Six lenses meter stopped down (TRA). Film speed 16–2000 GOST, read from the magazine, and four 1.5V cells (SC-32 in the Soviet designation, LR44/SR44 today) under a coin-slot cover in the base (Russian Wikipedia; TRA)
Motor drive: Not compatible — A coupling for a motor drive was one of the changes planned for the Kiev 645 prototype, which implies the Kiev-90 had none (TRA, after Braas)
Dimensions: 124 × 105 × 164 (Russian Wikipedia); 124 × 103 × 164 (Abramov) mm
Country: Ukraine (Ukrainian SSR)
Accessories: Waist-level finder and pentaprism finder, both supplied with the camera · Interchangeable 120 film magazines, normally two to an outfit · 35mm panoramic back, planned and shown in Arsenal's 1990 catalogue (TRA, after Braas) · Fast-wind grip, filters and lens shades shown in Arsenal's 1990 catalogue (TRA)

Shutter speeds are engraved along the edge of the focusing screen and a light beside each shows the speed set or chosen (TRA, who could not see it work). The screen is a Fresnel with a matte ring, microprism centre and split-image wedges, and screens are interchangeable (Russian Wikipedia). Arsenal's 1990 catalogue shows two prisms (TRA).

Where sources disagree

Production

About 2,000 — Princelle (via pentaconsix.com); McKeown, 12th edition, p.464 (via camera-wiki); English Wikipedia
About 30 — Russian Wikipedia
5 built in 1983, 40 in 1985 and parts for 200 in 1988, total of finished cameras unknown — Leitz Auction lot descriptions
A limited production of an unknown number, 1987–90 — Braas p.22 (via pentaconsix.com)

No production figure is settled. Leitz's year-by-year account and the run of serials it has sold (#8800083 in a 1988 batch) make 2,000 look high and 30 look low, but that is an inference.

Years

c.1983–85 and c.1987–90 — Princelle p.224 (via pentaconsix.com)
First version 1983–84, second from 1985, to 1991? — Abramov (photohistory.ru)
1985–1990? — Russian Wikipedia
1987–90 — Braas (via pentaconsix.com); 'from about 1987' — camera-wiki

The first camera is dated 1983 by its serial, which settles the start; the end is 1990 in three of the four accounts.

Flash sync

1/60 — Princelle (via pentaconsix.com); Russian Wikipedia
1/30 — Abramov (photohistory.ru)

Speeds

With the switch at M the camera fires at a fixed 1/125 — Nathan Dayton, The Kiev Report, July/August 1995, quoted by TRA
The mechanical speed is 1/60 — Russian Wikipedia

System

A breech-lock mount of the Pentacon Six/Kiev 60 type — Princelle p.224 and TRA (pentaconsix.com); English Wikipedia
A 'slightly modified' Pentacon Six mount — pentaconsix.com (The Cameras page)
'a bayonet mount' — camera-wiki

Better supported: Pentacon Six

The mount is the Pentacon Six breech-lock with an added aperture-value tab and a spring-loaded locking ring. Other Pentacon Six lenses fit and meter stopped down; the Kiev-90 lenses carry an extra finger. camera-wiki's "bayonet" describes the same mount.

What reviewers say

TRA (The Pentacon Six System, pentaconsix.com), a 1988 Kiev-90 (blog) — A long walk round a camera that has never worked for him: bought as working, it arrived jammed and could not be repaired in Ukraine or elsewhere. He admires the in-body metering, the film-speed contacts on the backs and the slide-off finder, finds it surprisingly heavy for 6×4.5, and concludes that it could have been the best Pentacon Six-mount camera but is unusable.

History

The Kiev-90 is the odd one out among Arsenal’s medium-format cameras: a 6×4.5 SLR with an electronically timed shutter, built in Kyiv in small batches between 1983 and about 1990. In shape it follows the Salyut and Kiev-88, a Hasselblad-style box with interchangeable finders and film magazines, though squarer and trimmed in black; Leitz Auction compares the design to the Mamiya 645. Its lens mount is not the Salyut’s thread-and-bayonet but the Pentacon Six breech-lock of the Kiev-60, with an extra tab that passes the set aperture to the meter.

What made it unusual was where the electronics went. The CdS cell sits in the body behind a half-silvered mirror, so the camera meters through any finder, and it offers aperture-priority automation, semi-automatic and manual exposure, with speeds from 4 seconds to 1/1000 lit up along the edge of the screen. Each magazine carries its own film-speed dial and passes the setting to the body through three gold contacts, so backs loaded with different films can be swapped mid-roll without resetting anything. Open-aperture metering needs lenses with a matching finger on the aperture ring; Princelle says most Arsenal medium-format lenses were made available in that form in 1988. Any other Pentacon Six lens fits but meters stopped down.

It did not work well. The first camera, #8300001, was made in 1983. Leitz Auction records five cameras that year, forty in 1985 and parts for two hundred in 1988, and does not know how many were finished. Published totals run from about thirty to about two thousand. G. Abramov describes a first version of 1983–84 and a second from 1985 with an added release button and a moved flash shoe; the 1988 cameras that have come to auction appear to be the second kind. McKeown says the shutter in surviving examples rarely works, and TRA, who searched for one for years, was told by a Ukrainian repairer of Kiev cameras that every Kiev-90 has electronic problems and that it was an engineering mistake. A revised Kiev 645 with a grip, a 75mm lens and a motor coupling was built as a factory prototype (1991 in Braas, via TRA; 1990 in Abramov) and never produced. That camera is not the later Kiev-60-based Kiev-645 or the Arax-645.

For a buyer this is a collector’s camera rather than one to use. Expect the shutter and metering not to work, whatever the listing says, and price it that way. Check that the outfit has both finders and at least one magazine, because the magazines are specific to this camera and do not fit a Kiev-88. Date the parts separately from the first two digits of each serial, and expect a lens or back a year or so away from the body. A lens engraved MC Volna-3 that came with the camera, with the extra finger on its aperture ring, is what makes open-aperture metering possible, so check for that finger before accepting a substitute lens.

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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.

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