Salyut
Arsenal · Kiev 88 mount · 6×6cm on 120 roll film, 12 frames per roll, in a detachable side-loading magazine (Mike Eckman; Russian Wikipedia) · 1957
Known as “Hasselbladski”, “Russianblad”
Also known as: Salyut · Salyut 6x6 · Arsenal Salyut · Kiev Salyut · Salut · Salut 6x6 · Салют · Zenith 80 · Zenit 80 · Revue 6x6 · Revue 80
Variants & identification
| Variant | Mount | Years | Serial ranges | Production |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First type: 1/1500, with self-timer | Kiev 88 | 1957–1963 | 6000534 — Sovietcams' example of the earliest version; 1960 if the first two digits are the year | — |
| Second type: 1/1500, no self-timer | Kiev 88 | 1958–1965 | — | — |
| Third type: 1/1000, black speed dial | Kiev 88 | 1965–1972 | 6803574 — Sovietcams' example of the 1/1000 version; 1968 if the first two digits are the year | — |
| Export: Zenith 80 / Zenit 80, Revue, Vitoflex | Kiev 88 | — | 7005246 — Sovietcams' Zenith-80; 1970 if the first two digits are the year | — |
- Production: 'more than 50 thousand' (Russian Wikipedia), '±50.000 units' (Sovietcams), 50,000 (camera-wiki). None of them cites an Arsenal document.
- End year, three ways: 1972 (Russian Wikipedia, Mike Eckman, the Sovietcams specification box), 1973 (the Sovietcams text) and 1974 (camera-wiki). This page uses 1972.
- Weight, from Mike Eckman's own scale: 1462 g with lens, magazine and hood; 1130 g body, magazine and hood (the figure above); 692 g body and hood; 624 g body alone. Russian Wikipedia gives 1400 g with the waist-level finder and 1600 g with a pentaprism, citing a 1968 Soviet camera book.
- Lenses: Russian Wikipedia says only the Mir-3V 65mm and Tair-33V 300mm were available beside the standard lenses before 1978, and that most of the rest of its V-mount list came from 1978 or later, after the Salyut had ended. Matt Denton writes that earlier Salyuts and their lenses had a different aperture coupling from the Salyut-S, so the lenses are not interchangeable unless the coupling is removed. Russian Wikipedia instead says all Kiev-88 accessories fit both the Salyut and the Salyut-S, and that the Kiev-88's 6×4.5 magazines fit the Salyut.
- pentaconsix gives the register as 82.10mm for the Kiev 88 and the Hasselblad 1000/1600 alike, and suggests the Novoflex bellows made for those Hasselblads may be usable on the Arsenal cameras.
- Whether Hasselblad 1600F/1000F lenses work on a Salyut, or Salyut lenses on the Hasselblads, has not been tested in any source consulted. Russian Wikipedia says Salyut lenses can be used with adapters on most focal-plane cameras.
- English Wikipedia's Kiev article says Arsenal decided to try copying the Hasselblad 1600F around 1956–57.
- Sovietcams records a Soviet claim that both the Hasselblad and the Salyut descended from a wartime German prototype, and calls it dubious because no such prototype has been seen.
- Eckman shows a very early Salyut (photo from photohistory.ru) with a Kiev logo, and reads it as a sign that name was once considered.
- A Salyut that belonged to Yuri Gagarin is shown in the Arsenal factory museum (photo caption, Russian Wikipedia).
- No period export price for a Zenith 80 or Revue was found.
How to tell them apart
- САЛЮТ in Cyrillic on the nameplate; no hot shoe (the hot shoe marks the Kiev-88)
- No aperture release pin in the lens mount: the Salyut-S of 1972 added it for automatic-diaphragm lenses (Mike Eckman). A Salyut lens has a spring lever that cocks its diaphragm by hand
- Standard lens Industar-29 80mm f/2.8; a Vega-12 90mm on the body suggests a Salyut-S or a later swap
- Top speed on the speed knob — 1/1500 for the early types, 1/1000 for the late — and the presence or absence of a self-timer place a body among the types
First type: 1/1500, with self-timer:
- Top speed 1/1500 on the speed knob (camera-wiki; Mike Eckman)
- A self-timer. camera-wiki splits the type in two: on type 1a (1957–59) it is worked from the shutter-speed knob, on type 1b (1959–63) from a separate knob of its own
- Cyrillic САЛЮТ nameplate; serial on the body, first two digits the year
Second type: 1/1500, no self-timer:
- Top speed 1/1500, as on the first type
- No self-timer knob or lever anywhere on the body
Third type: 1/1000, black speed dial:
- Top speed 1/1000 and a black speed dial (camera-wiki type 3a)
- No self-timer
- camera-wiki's type 3b is the same camera with a 'Made in USSR' label
Export: Zenith 80 / Zenit 80, Revue, Vitoflex:
- No Salyut name on the body and a 'Made in USSR' label (camera-wiki's type 4)
- Zenith 80 or Zenit 80 nameplate. The same name was used again on export Salyut-S bodies, so read the lens and the mount: an Industar-29 or a Vitoflex-engraved 80mm f/2.8 with a hand-cocked diaphragm points to a Salyut, a Vega-12 90mm to a Salyut-S
- Sovietcams' Zenith-80 is fitted with a 'VITOFLEX' 2.8/80 lens (no. 6803057) and has 'Made in USSR' on the side plate
- First type: 1/1500, with self-timer: Russian Wikipedia says the self-timer was fitted only until 1963, that its design kept changing, and that it was dropped because it broke often; Eckman also calls it unreliable. camera-wiki's 1a/1b split follows Alexander Komarov's classification at Fotoua; no source consulted ties it to serial numbers, so the two subtypes are kept here as markers on one variant.
- Second type: 1/1500, no self-timer: camera-wiki dates it 1958–65, overlapping the self-timer cameras, and illustrates one; Eckman and Sovietcams both list it as the intermediate version between the self-timer camera and the 1/1000 camera.
- Third type: 1/1000, black speed dial: Eckman calls this the most common Salyut. The fastest speed was cut from 1/1500 because, in his words, the 1/1500 of the early cameras was unreliable. camera-wiki runs the type to 1974, Russian Wikipedia and Eckman end Salyut production in 1972, and Sovietcams' text says 1973.
- Export: Zenith 80 / Zenit 80, Revue, Vitoflex: Eckman lists the export names as Zenit 80 (most exported cameras), Mepro Zenit 80 (the Japanese distributor), Vitoflex, and Revue 66 and Revue 80; camera-wiki gives Zenith 80 and Revue 6×6; Russian Wikipedia gives Zenit-80, Kiev-80 and Revue 6×6, though its own photo caption calls the Kiev-80 an export Salyut-S. Eckman says the exports were identical to the home-market cameras apart from the name. Sovietcams, citing commiecameras.com, says instead that the third type "can also be found marked Zenit 80", made for TO&E in England, and that this Zenit 80 has a slightly modified lens mount that accepts the later lenses. That matters for anyone hoping to fit Salyut-S or Kiev-88 lenses, so check it on the camera.
Serial-range notes
- The first two digits
- On other Arsenal cameras the first two digits of the serial are the year; camera-wiki states the rule for the Salyut-S. No source consulted states it for the Salyut, and Sovietcams does not date its examples, but read that way 6000534 (earliest version), 6803574 (1/1000 version) and 7005246 (Zenith-80) give 1960, 1968 and 1970, which fit the version dates.
Specifications
- Format
- 6×6cm on 120 roll film, 12 frames per roll, in a detachable side-loading magazine (Mike Eckman; Russian Wikipedia) · 12 exposures
- Finder
- Interchangeable waist-level finder with a folding hood and magnifier; a pentaprism was not part of the standard outfit (Russian Wikipedia)
- Shutter
- horizontal-travel metal-foil focal plane · 1/2–1/1500 + B on the early types, 1/2–1/1000 + B on the later (camera-wiki; Eckman; Russian Wikipedia) · flash sync X at 1/30; PC socket with M and X settings (Mike Eckman)
- Film advance
- Knob on the body, which also sets the shutter speeds; the magazine has its own advance knob, exposure counter and a readiness indicator (Mike Eckman; Russian Wikipedia)
- Back
- Interchangeable 120 magazines, not interchangeable with Hasselblad magazines without modification (Russian Wikipedia)
- Meter
- none
- Weight
- 1130 g
- Country
- Ukraine
- Original price
- 400 roubles, Soviet retail price, which Eckman says was six months' pay for an average Soviet worker at the time of its release (Mike Eckman; Sovietcams); the Mir-3 65mm was 240 roubles (Sovietcams). Neither says whether these are pre-1961 or post-1961 roubles
- Accessories
- Waist-level finder (standard) and pentaprism finders · 120 film magazines; Kiev-88 6×4.5 magazines also fit (Russian Wikipedia)
Eckman's camera has a Fresnel screen with a split-image aid that works only with the lens open; Russian Wikipedia describes a Fresnel screen with a central matte circle and a 53×53mm field, and says early Salyuts had split-image (Dodin wedge) screens. Russian Wikipedia and English Wikipedia both say the finders interchange with Hasselblad's.
Where sources disagree
- Which Hasselblad was the model
- The 1600F — Russian Wikipedia ('the Swedish Hasselblad 1600F was chosen as the design model'); camera-wiki calls the mount a copy of the Hasselblad 1600 mount; Sovietcams says it was 'probably a near copy of the Hasselblad 1600'
- Both — Mike Eckman writes 'very similar, but not an exact copy of the original Hasselblad 1000 F' in his introduction and 'very similar, but not identical to the Hasselblad 1600 F' in his history
- The 1000F — pentaconsix says the Kiev 88 line, of which it counts the Salyut a version, is 'largely inspired by the Hasselblad 1000F'
The 1600F and 1000F share body, mount and magazines and differ chiefly in the shutter, so the readings are close. The Salyut's 1/1500 top speed sits nearer the 1600F's 1/1600; its later 1/1000 matches the 1000F.
- Speeds
- 1/2–1/1500 + B early, 1/2–1/1000 + B later — camera-wiki, Mike Eckman, Russian Wikipedia, Sovietcams
- 1/2–1/500 + B with a rare 1/1000 version — English Wikipedia's Kiev article
Better supported: 1/2–1/1500 early, 1/1000 later
What reviewers say
- Mike Eckman (blog) — An easy recommendation: close to a Hasselblad in results and handling for far less, with a better finder than he expected and a sharp Industar-29. His copy leaked light and exposed unevenly across the frame, it was a bit stiff at first and a little louder than the Hasselblad, and the shutter speed must not be changed before winding.
History
The Salyut (Салют) is the first Soviet medium-format SLR, made by the Arsenal plant in Kyiv from 1957 to about 1972: a 6×6 box with a metal focal-plane shutter, interchangeable finders and interchangeable 120 magazines. It was built on the pattern of the Swedish Hasselblad focal-plane cameras. Russian Wikipedia names the 1600F as the design model. Mike Eckman calls the Salyut “very similar, but not identical” to the 1600F, and elsewhere “not an exact copy” of the 1000F. It adopted the lens mount of the 1600F and 1000F (pentaconsix), a coarse thread that Russian Wikipedia describes as three-start and Eckman calls a bayonet, with an 82.1mm register, but Russian Wikipedia says Hasselblad magazines do not fit without modification. Where it departs from the Swedish cameras is the diaphragm: Salyut lenses stop down semi-automatically, from a spring that is cocked by hand on the lens before each shot.
There are three working versions and an export dress. The early cameras have a 1/1500 top speed, which Eckman calls unreliable, and some have a self-timer, worked first from the speed knob and later from a knob of its own. The self-timer went in 1963, and from about 1965 the top speed was 1/1000, with a black speed dial. That last type is the commonest. Exported cameras dropped the Salyut name for Zenith or Zenit 80, Revue 6×6 or 80, or Vitoflex, and carry a ‘Made in USSR’ label. Zenith 80 was also used on the Salyut-S that followed in 1972, so the nameplate alone does not say which camera it is. The Salyut-S added an aperture release pin to the mount for fully automatic lenses; the Salyut has none. The Kiev-88 of 1980 added a hot shoe.
The standard lens is the Industar-29 80mm f/2.8. At first the only other lenses were the Mir-3 65mm and the Tair-33 300mm; most of the later Arsenal range arrived after the Salyut had ended. Sources disagree on whether those later lenses fit. Matt Denton writes that Salyut and Salyut-S lenses use different aperture couplings and do not interchange unless the coupling is removed. Sovietcams says the English-market Zenit 80 has a mount modified to take the later lenses, while Eckman says the exports differ from home-market cameras only in name. Check the actual lens on the actual body before buying either for the other.
When buying, wind before changing the shutter speed, as Eckman warns, and check the shutter at every speed. His camera exposed unevenly across the frame, which he put down to curtains out of adjustment, and had light leaks that he suspected came in by the dark slide. The shutter will not fire with the dark slide in. Read the serial: the first two digits give the year. A self-timer, the top speed and the nameplate then show which version it is.
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
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