Glass Bodies a variant-level encyclopedia of vintage lenses and cameras by iwillpat

Arsat PCS 55mm f/4.5 shift

Arsenal · Pentacon Six · 2000

Also known as: Arsat 55mm PCS · Arsat PCS 55 · MC Arsat PCS 55 · Arsat PCS 4.5/55 · Arsat 55mm shift · Arsat 55 shift · Arsat shift 55mm · Arsat 55mm f/4.5 shift · Arsat PCS 55 4.5 · Kiev Arsat 55mm shift · Arax PCS 55 · Arax PCS 55mm · Arsat PCS 55mm · MC Arsat PCS 55mm · Арсат 55 · ПКС Арсат 55

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
MC Arsat PCS 4.5/55 (Kiev-60 / Pentacon Six mount) Pentacon Six 2000 — —
  1. Dimensions and weight are TRA's (97.5 mm long, 900 g). Allphotolenses gives 97 mm and 900 g; kievaholic gives 95 mm long, 98 mm in diameter and 0.9 kg; the Arax table gives 0.85 kg; the Castello di Rivoli record gives 2 lb.
  2. Date. TRA says the lens 'was first marketed from about the year 2000'; that is the header year. TRA's Arsat page dates the ARSAT name to the late 1990s, while a note on his Russian and Ukrainian lens data page says Arsenal renamed most of its lenses from about 1990. Kievaholic's lens table, last updated in February 2002, already lists the 'MC PCS Arsat' 55. No end date is known.
  3. Kiev-88 mount. Allphotolenses lists the lens (as the 'Arax PCS 55 mm f/4.5 MC') for Pentacon Six, Kiev-88 and Salyut, and Arax says most of its lenses were made in both mounts. TRA, kievaholic and the Arax data table describe only the Pentacon Six lens, and kievaholic, which notes a reduced 10 mm shift for the Hartblei 45 in Kiev-88 mount, notes no Kiev-88 version of the 55. No example with the Kiev-88 thread is documented, so there is no Kiev-88 variant.
  4. Arax. Arax sold the lens new and lists it as 'PCS ARSAT/ARAX 55'; allphotolenses names it 'Arax PCS 55'. No Arax-engraved example is documented; TRA captions the pictures he took from the Arax website 'the three Arsat shift lenses'.
  5. Hartblei. TRA's tables have Hartblei 45 and 65 mm shift lenses (reported to use Mir-26B and Mir-38B optics) but the 55 'from Arsat only'. Hartblei did supply TRA with panorama pictures taken with the Arsat 55 on Hartblei's own shift adapter for a Fujifilm GFX, so the two names can appear together without the lens being a Hartblei.
  6. Hasselblad. An eBay seller in 2026 offered an 'ARSAT PCS 55mm F4 Shift' for the Hasselblad 2000-series bodies. No source describes a factory Hasselblad mount for this lens, so such a lens is most likely fitted with an adapter or converted; ask the seller which.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • The ARSAT 55 mm f/4.5 with 'PCS'. The other 55 mm f/4.5 shift lens for the mount, the Schneider PCS Super-Angulon of the Exakta 66, is far larger (1650 g, 104 mm outer-bayonet filter, in TRA's Schneider table)
  • Manual preset diaphragm and a cable-release socket for the aperture; no automatic diaphragm
  • Not a Mir-26 or Mir-38: the Hartblei 45 and 65 mm shift lenses are reported to reuse those optics, and TRA thinks the Arsat 45 and 65 do too, while the 55 is a separate 9-element design

MC Arsat PCS 4.5/55 (Kiev-60 / Pentacon Six mount):

  • Name ring reading ARSAT with 'PCS' and 'MC', 55 mm and 4.5. The only 55 mm Ukrainian shift lens: TRA lists the 45 and 65 mm shift lenses from both Arsat and Hartblei, and the 55 'from Arsat only'
  • Large shift ring with a scale to 12 mm on a mount that rotates through 360°, locking at click stops every 15°; a small lever behind the lens body releases the rotation lock (TRA)
  • Manual preset diaphragm with a separate stop-down ring, and a cable-release socket on the barrel so that a double cable release can close the aperture and then fire the camera (TRA, who mentions the socket on this lens alone among the Ukrainian shift lenses)
  • 72 mm filter thread, against 82 mm on the Arsat and Hartblei 45 mm shift lenses; 97.5 mm long and 900 g, the heaviest lens in TRA's shift-lens table
  • Pentacon Six breech-lock mount: fits the Kiev-60, Kiev-6S, Kiev-88CM, Pentacon Six, Praktisix and Exakta 66. The instruction manual's diagrams show it on a Kiev-60 with the metering prism (TRA)

Serial-range notes

0051
The lens photographed by Christopher Williams at the Douglas M. Parker Studio, Glendale, California, on 27 January 2007, according to the Castello di Rivoli record. It is the only serial number on record here; no production figure is known.

Specifications

Formula
Nine elements in seven groups (TRA's shift-lens tables, the Arax specification table, kievaholic, allphotolenses). A new lens, not part of the Soviet-era Arsenal programme (TRA); TRA reproduces a lens diagram
Construction
9 elements / 7 groups
Aperture range
f/4.5–f/22
Min. focus
0.5 m
Dimensions
97.5 mm long
Weight
900 g
Filter
72 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Years manufactured
2000
Country
Ukraine (Arsenal, Kiev)
Coating
Multi-coated, marked 'MC' (the Arax table as copied by TRA, 'MC PCS ARSAT 55'; kievaholic 'MC PCS Arsat'; the Castello di Rivoli record, 'Kiev MC Arsat 4.5/55mm')

What reviewers say

Optical formula — Nine elements in seven groups (TRA's shift-lens tables, the Arax specification table, kievaholic, allphotolenses). A new lens, not part of the Soviet-era Arsenal programme (TRA); TRA reproduces a lens diagram

History

The Arsat 55mm f/4.5 PCS is a wide-angle shift lens for 6×6 cameras with the Pentacon Six breech-lock mount, made by the Arsenal factory in Kiev after the Soviet Union had gone and sold under the factory’s post-Soviet ARSAT name. Unlike almost everything else Arsenal sold for its medium-format bodies, it was not an old lens with a new badge. TRA, author of the pentaconsix.com reference site on the system, describes it as a new lens that had not been part of the Arsenal programme, made to a much higher standard than the Soviet-era glass, and dates its first sale to about 2000. It has nine elements in seven groups, stops down from f/4.5 to f/22, focuses to 0.5 m, takes 72 mm filters and weighs about 900 g. The lens shifts 12 mm and the whole mount rotates through 360°, locking every 15°, so the shift can go up, down, sideways or diagonally.

Its place among the Ukrainian shift lenses is what makes it worth knowing about. The Hartblei 45mm and 65mm shift lenses are reported to use Mir-26 and Mir-38 optics in new shift mounts, and TRA believes the Arsat 45 and 65 do too; the 55 is a lens of Arsenal’s own, and in TRA’s tables it comes from Arsat alone. The other 55mm f/4.5 shift lens for the mount is the Schneider PCS Super-Angulon of the Exakta 66, which TRA calls hyper-rare and hyper-expensive: the dealer Foto Oehling quoted him DM 6,890 plus VAT for it in reply to a letter of December 1987, and TRA’s Schneider table gives 1650 g. TRA, who used the 55 on a Pentacon Six for architecture, found straight lines to the edges, no vignetting he could see at full shift and virtually no visible colour fringing, and writes that it is reputedly one of the sharpest lenses for the mount. His kitchen-interior test of wide-angles, unshifted, is less flattering about colour fringing: the 55 shared second place for straight lines with the Pentax 67 45mm, a little behind the Flektogon 50 and two 40mm lenses, but showed the most chromatic aberration of the lenses compared, though TRA adds that it goes unnoticed in most whole-frame viewing.

Like the other shift lenses, it has a manual preset diaphragm rather than an automatic one: the camera cannot stop it down. The 55 has two things that make that easier, a separate stop-down ring that can be found without looking away from the finder and a cable-release socket on the barrel, so that a double cable release first closes the aperture and then fires the camera. Arsenal’s instruction manual, whose diagrams show the lens on a Kiev-60, suggests shifting left and right for two frames to stitch into a wider picture and shifting sideways to keep the photographer out of a shop window.

Every documented example has the Pentacon Six mount. It fits the Kiev-60, Kiev-6S and Kiev-88CM as well as the Pentacon Six, Praktisix and Exakta 66, but not the threaded mount of a plain Kiev-88 or a Salyut. Allphotolenses lists Kiev-88 and Salyut mounts as well, and Arax says most of its lenses came in both mounts, but no example with the Kiev-88 thread is documented, so a seller offering one should be asked to show the mount. Arax in Kiev and kievcamera.net sold the lens new, and Arax lists it as ‘PCS ARSAT/ARAX 55’. The only serial number on record here is 0051, on the example Christopher Williams photographed for a 2007 print now in the Castello di Rivoli collection. When buying, check that the shift and rotation work smoothly and lock, that the preset and stop-down rings work and the cable-release socket is undamaged, and that the mount suits the body. TRA’s tables list no Hartblei 55mm shift lens, although Hartblei has published panoramas taken with the Arsat 55 on its own shift adapter for the Fujifilm GFX.

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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.

Example photos

More sample photos elsewhere

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Sample photo wanted — shot with a Arsat PCS 55mm f/4.5 shift? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Listings updated 2026-11-09. Links go to the shop or marketplace that carries the item.

Sources (13)

Every page here is assembled from public sources, and the gaps are real ones. If you own this lens, know a serial number I'm missing, or can see where I have it wrong, tell me — corrections, serials and sample photos are all worth having.