"Kiev-20" - the flagship of Ukrainian photographic equipment

So, in this article we will focus on the Kiev-20 film camera, we will also dive a little into the history of its creation, and of course, without a description and technical characteristics.

A bit of history

So, the Kiev Arsenal plant , which received machine tools and drawings from Zeiss Ikon factories after the Second World War, starts the production of cameras (at the beginning of replicas of the German Contax, and then its own development). By 1965, production of mirror devices was being established. The first, and by the way, very bold models with their own mount (mount the lens to the camera) appear: Kiev-10 (the world's first DSLR with automatic, Pentax Electro Spotmatic came out only after 6 years) and Kiev-15 .

Then, the following happened. On the occasion of the Olympic Games of the 80th year, the party leadership purchased a large number of Japanese Nikon equipment (which at that time was considered the best, and carefully imported for the best Soviet photographers). The cost of buying foreign-made cameras has prompted managers to issue a professional-made SLR camera of their own production with Nikon mount (for lens and camera compatibility). To start production, the Arsenal plant was chosen, where there was already experience in creating SLR cameras. This marked the beginning of the creation of the Arsenal line of cameras with the F mount , the standard Nikon mount, which the Union called the N mount (Nikon).

It was first developed Kiev-17(purely mechanical, without a light meter), and then - Kiev-20 . The next model, called Kiev-19 , became a simplified version of the 20th.

Description

The camera is equipped with a built-in paired TTL exposure meter. This means that you can simply set the necessary aperture on the lens and rotate the shutter speed ring until the middle LED in the viewfinder, which is responsible for normal exposure (the top one, is the over exposure, the bottom one, respectively, is insufficient). The whole thing is powered by four LR44 batteries (such as laser pointers are used). However, the shutter is completely mechanical, i.e. no batteries are required for it. The diaphragm here is the so-called “jumping” one, which means that it closes to the operating value only at the moment of shooting, and at the moment of focusing it remains open, which makes the process of focusing much more pleasant and easier (when the diaphragm is open, the sharpness is better distinguishable and blur in the viewfinder).



The camera has a focal lamella (lamellas - metal curtains) shutter with vertical movement of lamellas. This shutter, at one time, was created from scratch for Kiev-17, and by the time Kiev-20 was released, its production was well-established and run-in. It snaps loudly, but not with a clang, like on the Zeniths, this is a merit of most likely more perfect mirror mechanics. This shutter was used only in the 17th and 20th Kiev.

But the main bun is that the mount on the camera is Nikon's! This means that you can attach lenses from Nikon cameras to it or attach lenses from the Arsenal factory to your Nikon. And this is especially good, considering today's lens prices. True, you will have to pay with autofocus - of course, it will not work on shovel lenses. But their drawing is worth it .

The shutter speed range of the device is decent - from 1 second to 1/1000, which cannot be compared with the “classic” Zenith set (1/30 - 1/500).



Pleases the field of view in the viewfinder - 93% of the frame! This is comparable to many modern digital SLRs (they usually have this indicator 95%). And this is definitely not comparable with 63% of the same "classic" Zeniths.

Also, the camera has a self-timer mode, aperture repeater (you can see at any time how the image will look with the aperture closed to the working value) and multi-exposure mode (overlay frame on frame).

Kiev-20 is refueled with an ordinary film of type 135 (35-mm film)



The standard lens is Helios-81N. An excellent fifty dollars, or portrait, if you attach it to Nikon. However, there are different lenses for Kiev-20, such as this zoom:

Specifications

To summarize:

• Shutter with shutter speeds 1 - 1 / 1000s and "B" (by hand)
• Viewfinder with a full field of view (field of viewfinder - 23x35mm - 93% of the frame)
• Optics connection: N mount (geometrically compatible with Nikon F mount).
• Photosensitivity of the film: from 8 to 1000 units in accordance with GOST.
• Self-timer
• Multiple exposure
• Overall dimensions: 90 x 96 x 145 mm
• Weight: 1100 g
• Years of production: 1983-1986
• Manufacturer: Arsenal Plant.

So why the flagship?

Of course, in the USSR there were projects of more advanced cameras, such as Almaz , several Zenit models (although I agree, a couple of Zenit are close to it in terms of characteristics, but we are talking about the Ukrainian photo industry) and serious receiver - Kiev-18 . But it so happened that the lack of funding for the photo industry in the 80s and then the collapse of the Union did not allow these projects to become a reality, and they remained in the form of prototypes that did not go into series. And Kiev-20 was released and quite real was produced from 1983 to 1986. And I still photograph him.

You can see examples of pictures here .