Kiev 6C

The Kiev 6 series cameras come in an S and C variant mostly based on age. They are medium format SLR cameras built in the Arsenal factory in the Ukraine during the Soviet era. The design was based very closely on the popular East German Pentacon Six and as such it shared many of that camera's design flaws. It is fully manual, has TTL metering within the removable prism, and uses 120 or 220 roll film.

The Kiev 6 series cameras use focal plane cloth shutters and support speeds from 1/1000 to 1/2 sec, as well as a bulb (B) setting.

The lenses are interchangeable with the Pentacon Six mount. Original lenses were not coated and therefore mostly suitable for black and white work.

Later the design was revised with improvements to the shutter and film advance mechanisms as well as the dropping of the 220 film format. With much newer designed multicoated lenses included it was released again as the Kiev 60. The Kiev 60 is considered to be a much more robust camera due to its revised design.

Although similar looking to a Kiev 60, the 6 models are easily identified by the left hand shutter button. Kiev 6 series cameras generally sell for less than comparable condition Kiev 60 models.

The company Arax has upgraded Kiev 60 cameras from the beginning of the 2000s decade.

Links

• Kiev 6 repairing and upgrading service
• Kiev60SLR website with many Kiev 60 do-it-yourself information

See also the links in the Pentacon Six and Pentacon Six mount pages.