This is not a camera for the faint of heart or weak of arm. With its standard lens and pentaprism metered head in place it measures a whopping 17x16x15cm and weighs in at just under 2 kilograms. It is, in short, a bit of a beast. But it’s also a beauty.
- Launched: 1978, Price at launch: approximately $600 / £450, Guide price now: $200-250 / £150-200
Made at the Kiev Arsenal in Ukraine, it shoots twelve 6x6cm pictures on 120 film or 24 on 220. The Vega-12B 90mm f/2.8 standard lens attaches to the body via a breach lock mount, which it shares with the East German Pentacon Six. Film is wound by a lever which has an odd method of rotating in the normal way, while at the time sliding horizontally. The shutter release is on the left of the front of the body beside the lens.
Although the Kiev 6C can be equipped with a waist-level viewfinder, it is most often found with its eye-level through-the-lens metered prism finder. The camera is manual but the meter requires three LR44 batteries. In use, the film speed is set on a top-mounted dial, then an inner ring on the dial is rotated until the maximum aperture of the lens in use lines up with an arrow.
Shutter speeds indicated on an outer ring are adjusted while watching two LEDs in the viewfinder. The left one shows under-exposure, the right one over-exposure. When both are lit exposure is correct and can be read off the outer ring shutter speed dial against the inner ring apertures. These are now set manually, shutter speeds of 1/2-1/1,000sec by a knob on the left of the top plate and apertures on a ring around the lens. A split-image rangefinder aids focusing.
Shortly after the introduction of the Kiev 6C, the Kiev 60 was launched, which removed the facility for using 220 film and moved the slightly awkward shutter release from the left to the more comfortable right side of body. Other than that, the two cameras are much the same.
What’s good
- Top quality from medium format images and well-reputed lenses.
What’s bad
- Film prone to uneven spacing if not wound in a single smooth movement.
Related reading
- Best 35mm SLR film cameras with manual focus
- Best 35mm film cameras
- Classic film cameras: the clever Olympus OM-2N
