Kiev 90
The Kiev 90 was an analog single-lens reflex camera medium format camera (format 4.5 × 6 cm on roll film 120) of the Kiev brand of the Ukrainian manufacturer Zavod Arsenal , which was built in small numbers from around 1982 to around 1989: 5 pieces were built in 1983, 1985 40 pieces, in 1988 parts for 200 cameras were produced, but only 120 were actually completed, in 1989 a few more copies were assembled from the existing parts - that results in a quantity of less than 245 pieces. The Kiev 90 was probably intended as an ambitious successor to the Kiev 88, but could not be brought onto the market by the manufacturer due to its inadequate camera electronics (only about every 20th camera still works today).
The camera ( similar in design and size to the Zenza-Bronica ETR or the Mamiya 645) had interchangeable magazines and interchangeable lenses with an extended P6 bayonet that mechanically transfers the set aperture value into the housing. A built-in light meter (TTL measurement by means of a semi-transparent dichroic main mirror, a radiation-collecting Fresnel mirror behind it and a silicon cell in the camera base) controls based on the brightness information of the light measuring system, the aperture information entered mechanically / electrically by the lens (via a variable resistor in the housing) and the Electrically transmitted from the film magazine, the exposure (in the form of a timer), whereby the current automatically generated exposure time is displayed with a red LED line to the left of the viewfinder image. When the camera is operated manually, this LED line is used to display both the time suggested by the exposure meter and to simultaneously display the time actually set manually (this means: if you align the two light displays by adjusting the aperture or the shutter wheel, the exposure is correct) . The shutter speed from 4 s to 1/1000 sec. (And B) is generated electronically, but there is also a purely mechanical time of 1/60. sec. (it is also the synchronization time for flash photos; the shutter can be switched from electronic to mechanical with a small knurled wheel below the transport crank).
The interchangeable viewfinder (shaft viewfinder or telescopic viewfinder) can be exchanged without removing the magazine. The ground glass is also easily exchangeable, there are different panes with cross-sectional rangefinder or microprismatic spots, but also a simple, fully ground glass with a grid (all ground glass are made of acrylic and have the shutter speed numbers for the LED row next to them). The film crank can be exchanged for a high-speed winding handle (which is similar to that of the Bronica ETR).
A multi-coated MC VOLNA-3 2.8 / 80mm was used as the lens, a six-lens, five-unit double Gaussian type with a spring diaphragm.
Overall, the Kiev 90 was a sensationally advanced camera (not only for the camera production of the Soviet Union at the time), which in terms of its construction was definitely comparable to the Japanese competition. Because of its inadequate electronics, however, it was only produced and delivered in very small numbers in the end, although all contemporary catalogs of the Soviet camera industry had announced the camera. Ten prototypes of a "Kiev 645" planned as the successor to Kiev 90 (outwardly very similar to Kiev 90) were built in 1990, but no series production took place.