Kiev 90
The Kiev 90 is an SLR camera for 4.5x6 cm exposures on 120 film, made briefly by the Arsenal in Kiev, Ukraine from about 1987. It is plainly derived from the Salyut/Kiev 80 series of cameras, but has a body style distinct from the earlier cameras. It has rather squarer corners, and black-painted trim instead of bright metal plating.
The standard lens is a multi-coated Volna-3 80 mm f/2.8, with a bayonet mount. The camera has a focal-plane shutter, travelling vertically (i.e across the shorter dimension of the picture frame). This has electronically-timed speeds from 4 to 1/1000 seconds, plus 'B'.
Waist-level and prism finders exist for the camera, and the focusing screen is also interchangeable. Metering is in the camera (not in the prism finder, as with, for example, the Mamiya M645 cameras).[1] The film back is also interchangeable and can be changed mid-roll.
McKeown states that very few (about 2000) cameras were made, and that the camera is sadly very unreliable; the shutter in surviving examples is rarely working.[2]
Notes
- ↑ The Kiev 90 at TRA's The Pentacon Six System
- ↑ McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 12th Edition, 2005-2006. USA, Centennial Photo Service, 2004. ISBN 0-931838-40-1 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931838-41-X (softcover). p464.
Links
- Kiev 90 serial no. 8800002, with MC Volna-3, waist-level and prism finders and two film backs, sold at the 24th Westlicht Photographica Auction, on 23 November 2013; several pictures of the camera and accessories.
- Kiev 90 Review at Nathan Dayton's Communist Cameras.
