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

Granit-11 80–200mm f/4.5

Arsenal · Kiev Automat + Nikon F + M42 · 1978 · Eleven-element 2.5× zoom, eleven elements in nine groups

via machine translation — corrections welcome

Also known as: Granit-11 · Granit 11 · Granit-11 80-200 · Granit-11 4.5/80-200 · Granit-11 4,5/80-200 · Granit 80-200 · MC Granit-11 · Гранит-11 · Гранит 11 · Granit-11N · Granit-11H · Granit-11M · Arsat 80-200

Variants & identification

Variant Mount Years Serial ranges Production
Granit-11 for the Kiev-10 / Kiev-15 (Automat bayonet) Kiev Automat bayonet (Kiev-10, Kiev-15), M42 adapter in the kit — — —
Granit-11 for the Kiev-15 / Kiev-17 (Kiev-17 bayonet) Kiev-17 bayonet (Nikon F type), with a Kiev-15 bayonet and an M42 adapter in the kit — — —
MC Granit-11N (МС Гранит-11Н), for the Kiev-17 / Kiev-20 Nikon F 1983 — —
MC Granit-11M (МС Гранит-11М) M42 by Aries's account; one dealer sold an Arsat-branded MC Granit-11M as Nikon F — — —
Zoom Arsat-N 4.5/80-200 (post-Soviet Arsenal) Nikon F — — —
  1. Dates. Abramov gives 1978(?)–1991(?), both with his own question marks. He shows an illustration from Sovetskoe Foto no. 4 of 1977, which predates his start date, and a Kiev-17 passport of 1982; the box of the Kiev-15/17 version carries the specification number ТУЗ-3.476-78. Maruhashi's 2005 table lists the lens as a current Arsat-N product, so the family has no end date here.
  2. Makers. Abramov says KMZ (Krasnogorsk) made a small batch before all production passed to Arsenal in Kyiv. Allphotolenses attributes the 'M variant' to KMZ, but no KMZ-made copy has been identified, so it has no variant row of its own; it is not established that the KMZ batch was the M42 version.
  3. Adapters. Abramov says the M42 versions came with adapters for the bayonet mounts (in some cases two, for the Kiev-15 and the Kiev-17), and the bayonet versions with an 'A' adapter to M42. A Granit-11 found on one mount may therefore have been sold on another.
  4. Figures and where they differ. Abramov: 30–12° field, resolution centre/edge 50/20 lines/mm at 80 mm, 36/20 at 150 mm and 45/20 at 200 mm, transmission 0.8, 11 elements in 9 components. The passport gives 950 g, 67 mm diameter and 163 mm length. Marco Aries gives 780 g for his M42 copy, 157 mm long at infinity and 175 mm fully extended; Kamerastore gives 850 g, 165 × 70 mm and 10 elements in 9 groups; allphotolenses gives 165 mm. Allphotolenses, Kamerastore and Aries all give six aperture blades; there is no maker's figure for the blade count, so it is not carried in the structured fields.
  5. Granit Automat 45-80/3.5, listed by Wikipedia among the Kiev-10 lenses, is not a version of this lens and is unconfirmed as a production item; Abramov's list of Soviet zooms has no Granit of that range.
How to tell them apart (expand)
  • An 80–200mm f/4.5 two-ring zoom: a broad knurled focusing ring at the front and a zoom ring with the focal lengths behind it; the Kiev-17/20 and M42 copies in Abramov's photographs have an aperture ring 4.5–22 at the rear
  • Focuses to 1.5 m and takes 58 × 0.75 mm filters; about 950 g and 163 mm long by the passport
  • Not the Granit-20 4/70-210, the Granit-13 80-240 or the Granit-16K 5.6/200-450, which are different lenses under the same name
  • The mount is the thing to check: the same name was sold for the Kiev-10/15 bayonet, the Kiev-17/20 (Nikon F-type) bayonet and M42, and many kits included adapters to the others

Granit-11 for the Kiev-10 / Kiev-15 (Automat bayonet):

  • Engraved ГРАНИТ-11 4,5/80-200 with the serial on the front ring, no MC (Abramov photographs such a lens, serial 820731, without saying which mount it has)
  • Arsenal's Automat bayonet at the rear, the mount of the Kiev-10 and Kiev-15, which nothing else takes
  • Box reads 'для фотоаппаратов Киев-10, Киев-15' (for the Kiev-10 and Kiev-15 cameras), price 420 roubles printed on it
  • The kit Abramov photographs carries two spare rings with the lens; the passport for this version says it can also be used on Zenit-type cameras with the M42×1 thread

Granit-11 for the Kiev-15 / Kiev-17 (Kiev-17 bayonet):

  • Box reads 'для фотоаппаратов Киев-15, Киев-17', with TU number ТУЗ-3.476-78 and the price 420 roubles
  • The passport's kit list names a Kiev-15 bayonet and an M42 adapter besides the lens; it gives working distances of 44 mm for the Kiev-15 and 46.5 mm for the Kiev-17
  • Aperture ring 4.5–22 at the rear with a lever that opens the diaphragm for focusing and closes it to the set stop before the exposure, as the passport describes

MC Granit-11N (МС Гранит-11Н), for the Kiev-17 / Kiev-20:

  • Engraved МС ГРАНИТ-11Н 4,5/80-200, the MC in red; the last letter is Cyrillic Н (Latin N), which sellers often type as an H
  • Box reads 'МС Гранит-11Н ... для фотоаппаратов Киев-17, Киев-20'
  • Nikon F-type bayonet at the rear, the mount of the Kiev-17, Kiev-19, Kiev-19M and Kiev-20

MC Granit-11M (МС Гранит-11М):

  • Engraved МС ГРАНИТ-11М 4,5/80-200 in Cyrillic (Abramov photographs serial 911130) or MC GRANIT-11M in Latin letters (serial 870314), the MC in red
  • Check the rear: the M is read as M42 by Marco Aries, whose copy was M42, but the letter alone is not proof of the mount

Zoom Arsat-N 4.5/80-200 (post-Soviet Arsenal):

  • Sold under the Arsat name (the abbreviation of Zavod Arsenal, per Maruhashi) rather than Granit; Nikon F-type bayonet
  • How the barrel is engraved is not documented; allphotolenses gives the later name as MC ZOOM ARSAT M 80-200mm 4.5, and some dealer titles pair the Arsat name with MC Granit-11M

Specifications

Formula
Eleven-element 2.5× zoom, eleven elements in nine groups
Construction
11 elements / 9 groups
Aperture range
f/4.5–f/22
Min. focus
1.5 m
Dimensions
67 × 163 mm
Weight
950 g
Filter
58 mm (0.75 mm pitch)
Years manufactured
1978
Country
USSR (Ukrainian SSR); later Ukraine
Original price
420 roubles, Soviet retail price printed on the boxes of the Kiev-10/15 and Kiev-15/17 versions; Abramov records it raised to 450 roubles in 1985, while allphotolenses gives 420 roubles in 1985 and 450 in 1987

What reviewers say

Optical formula — Eleven-element 2.5× zoom, eleven elements in nine groups

History

The Granit-11 is Arsenal’s 80–200mm f/4.5 zoom, a 2.5× telephoto zoom of eleven elements in nine groups made from about 1978 for the Kiev SLRs and for M42 Zenits. Abramov lists versions for the Automat bayonet of the Kiev-10 and Kiev-15, for the Nikon F-type bayonet of the Kiev-17 and Kiev-20, and for the M42 thread. He dates it 1978 to 1991, both with question marks, and records that KMZ at Krasnogorsk made a small batch before the whole of production went to Arsenal in Kyiv. The lens was already illustrated in Sovetskoe Foto no. 4 of 1977.

What makes it a confusing lens to buy is that the mount was treated almost as an accessory. The passports Abramov reproduces describe a lens for the Kiev-10 and Kiev-15 that can also be used on M42 Zenits, and a Kiev-17 version of 1982 whose kit included a Kiev-15 bayonet and an M42 adapter. The boxes name the cameras: Kiev-10 and Kiev-15 on one, Kiev-15 and Kiev-17 on another, Kiev-17 and Kiev-20 on the box of the multi-coated MC Granit-11N. The Soviet retail price printed on the early boxes is 420 roubles, which Abramov records rising to 450 in 1985 (allphotolenses puts the rise in 1987): about ten times the 40 roubles Abramov gives for a Jupiter-9 in 1985.

The versions are told apart by the engraving and the rear of the lens. A plain ГРАНИТ-11 without MC is the earlier lens, and the boxes and passports Abramov shows for it name the Kiev bayonets. МС ГРАНИТ-11Н is the multi-coated Nikon F-type version; the final letter is a Cyrillic Н, a Latin N, which sellers often type as “Granit-11H”. The MC Granit-11M, found in both Cyrillic and Latin engraving, is less clear. Abramov says the difference from the plain Granit-11 is not reliably known and is presumably the coating. Marco Aries reads the M as M42 and reviewed an M42 copy, while one dealer has sold an Arsat-branded MC Granit-11M as Nikon F. After the Soviet Union, Arsenal sold the lens under the Arsat name, as the Zoom Arsat-N 4.5/80-200 in Kaoru Maruhashi’s list and as the MC Zoom Arsat M by allphotolenses’ account, and Maruhashi found it still listed as current production in 2005 at US$145.

It is a big, heavy lens for an f/4.5: 950g and 163mm long by the passport, with a 58mm filter and 1.5m closest focus. Aries found it sharp through most of the range wide open but soft at 200mm, with chromatic aberration and ghosting against the light, and his repairers found no fault in his copy. When buying, look first at the rear mount and ask which adapters come with it, because a Granit-11 may have left the factory with adapters for one or two other mounts. Then check the long barrel for play in the zoom and focus rings and look into the eleven elements for haze and decentring.

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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 Granit-11 80–200mm f/4.5? We'd love to feature it (with credit).

Live listings

Asking price, USD: a median of $130 across 26 fixed-price listings on 2026-11-09 (middle half $75–$170). First day tracked.

Asking prices from the listings scanned, not sales; junk-flagged rows and auction lots excluded; other currencies are not converted.

Show 19 more listings

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

Sources (4)

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.