The Cousin of the Pentacon Six
I previously introduced the East German-made Pentacon Six. Here is its Soviet cousin, the Kiev 60 (or Kiev 6C).
The Differences Between the Two Cameras
There is a consensus that the Kiev 60 is easier to use than the Pentacon Six: issues with seizing grease that renders the camera unusable are less common on the Soviet machine, and the viewfinders of the Kiev 60 provide an image that is about two stops brighter.
The waist-level finder of the Kiev 60 can also be used at eye level by unfolding certain parts (the image is reversed horizontally and vertically)… I disabled this feature because of an unbearable rattling sound it caused on my camera.
Additionally, the tripod thread on the Kiev 60 is a 3/8 format, making it incompatible with most modern tripod heads which use 1/4. However, this issue is easily fixed by buying an adapter.
It should be noted that the lens mounts are not exactly identical. The lenses remain interchangeable, but if you want to use your Kiev 88 / Salyut-C mount lenses with an adapter, you will have to tinker and replace the Kiev 60 mount, whereas they fit directly on the Pentacon Six.
Still Flawed
Without being the most elegant and refined camera around, the Kiev 60 is more sophisticated than the Pentacon Six. It feels denser and more thoughtfully engineered than its East German cousin.
However, despite being more solid and inspiring more confidence, the Kiev 60 can still experience failures.
For instance, on my copy, the frame spacing is too wide, which reduces the number of frames to 10 instead of 12 and makes the frame counter value inaccurate.
At that rate, I would have preferred a system with a red window like on older folding cameras (for example this Super-Kinax). Film is expensive, and it is annoying to lose 15% of your frames like this.
You will notice that the shape of the image is not completely square, which indicates film flatness issues (the missed focus is on my part).
But I was fortunate enough to escape a gross manufacturing defect: on some models, the internal walls of the camera were painted in glossy black. This causes reflections and light streaks to appear on the images.
Everything is nice and matte here.
Both of these problems can be fixed by a repair technician… along with the labor costs that entails.
Just like with the Pentacon Six, you need to be careful at the time of purchase to avoid unpleasant surprises.
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