Gearing up for the Crappy Commie Camera Party (Part VI): The Kiev 60, The Poor Man’s Pentax 67
There’s been a lot of talk* between my mutuals on BlueSky about the Pentax 67, the medium format behemoth SLR from Pentax. I would love one of these humongous beasties, but it’s a camera that’s way out of my budget, and I could only dream. That being said, there is an alternative, and since it’s the Crappy Commie Camera Party at the moment it’s a perfect opportunity to explore these alternatives.
The Kiev 60 is a medium format single lens reflex (SLR) camera manufactured in Ukraine between 1984 and 1999. Like many Soviet cameras, the Kiev 60 is a copy of another camera, in this case the East German Pentacon Six. It shares the l same lens mount as the Pentacon Six lenses, but from what I have learned is actually an improvement over that camera. The Kiev 60 uses 120 film, giving twelve square 6x6cm images per roll. It has a cloth shutter with speeds of 2s to 1/1000s (plus B). The actual production date of the camera can be determined from the first two numbers of the serial number, and mine was made in 1991.
The camera came fitted as standard with a Volna-3 MC, 80mm f2.8 lens (6 elements in 3 groups), with apertures between f2.8 and f22. The lens is fitted with a Pentacon Six breech mount and the lens can be removed by turning the ring on the front of the lens mount. The Kiev 60 comes with either a battery powered prism TTL viewfinder or a waist level finder. Mine came with the waist level finder, although the ‘loupe in the viewfinder had fallen off’, which might make focusing a little awkward, and I quickly added a prism finder. The lens and the prism finder were also from 1991, and I reckon that these were from the same kit on the Kameratore website, but sold separately.
Like most of the cameras that I get from the Kamerastore, it was in the ‘Not Passed’ category, meaning the camera is, ‘untested or tested, inspected, and found to have flaws that will affect typical use’. In this case, ‘the frame spacing is fairly narrow, so frames might overlap depending on the film type, and as mentioned before, ‘the loupe in the viewfinder has fallen off. Also, ‘the lens has oil on the aperture blades, which will affect exposure’, so that is something I will need to address or work around.
As it’s a medium format camera, the Kiev 60 is huge, dwarfing my previous behemoth of an SLR, the Zenit 11, and making my micro four-thirds mirrorless cameras look positively Lilliputian. It’s also heavy, coming in at nearly 2kg with the lens fitted, although this is still lighter than the Pentax 67, which I understand weighs about 2.5kg with lens. There are some issues that I’ll need to address, mainly the oil on the aperture blades, which makes changing the aperture quite sluggish. It’s likely that I’ll invest in a better condition lens, but I need to have a few trial runs with the Kiev 60 first.
The frame spacing issue is apparently quite a common occurrence with the Kiev 60, resulting in overlapping frames, especially at the start of the film. I’ve been reading about this, and I may have discovered two possible solutions, one complicated and involving taking the Kiev 60 apart, the other much simpler. According to an excellent article in 35mmc by Michael Elliott, Kiev 60 TTL: Medium Format SLR Review, the backing paper of Soviet-era 120 films back in the 1980s was thicker than on 120 films nowadays. This means that the camera, which is calibrated for Soviet films, will wind on slightly differently to modern films — not winding the film as far as it should — resulting in overlapping frames.
Elliott’s solution is quite ingenious. He proposes that ‘the thickness of the take-up spool [tells the camera] how far to advance for the next shot, [which] causes the advance to “over-advance” towards the end of the roll’ with modern films. So what he does is add, ‘a piece of [backing] paper … around 10cm long … to the front of the roll, and winding the start marker on the leader to the left edge of the silver ridge just past the start marker on the camera … [S]hooting 2 blank frames rather than 3, and then counting the next frame as a “real” frame yielded 13 well-spaced … frames, with no overlap’.
I cut a 15cm piece of backing paper from a used roll and overlapped this on a second spare backing paper roll so it projected out about 10cm. I then loaded this into the camera and wound the paper along until the ‘start’ marker lined up with the red indicator dot. In fact it went a little past because I did not realise that I could turn the take-up roll by hand to the marker. From the marker I wound the camera for three frames that would take it to the first frame (actually just a little further) and marked either side of the frame. Then I wound the film to the next frame, and marked the position of the frame. And so on.
It worked! There was no overlap of the frames. In fact, it looked like the later frames were a little too widely spaced, so I might not actually get 12 exposures out of a roll. However, what I’ll do with the first roll through the Kiev is to add the 10cm leader and then wind the film so the ‘start’ marker aligns with the red index mark on the film channel. Then I’ll close the cover and wind on until the counter shows ‘1’. After that I’ll expose the film as normal and see what comes out.
The issue with the loupe solved itself quite easily. After opening the camera, and checking out all of the bits and pieces (and really struggling to get the Kiev open the first time), I put the camera aside. Then, a few purs later, the Better Half appeared holding a small baggie: ‘Is this yours? she asked. It was the missing loupe lens, in a small zip bag. The bag had fallen down the side of the chair when I was opening the package. All that’s needed to keep it in place is a little contact cement. Problem solved.
The oil on the lens means that when I’m taking photographs at anything other than the widest aperture there’s a slight delay between pressing the shutter and the camera stopping down the lens to record the image. So in the meantime, what I’ve done is to get a cheap ND4 filter so that I can use the Kiev fully open at high shutter speeds. My rough tests with the Camera Meter app suggests that at f2.8 on a sunny day, with ISO 100 film I’ll need a shutter speed of about 1/1000s, the maximum shutter speed of the camera.
The first roll I’m going to put through this camera is an expired (c.2011) roll of Kodak Portra 160 NC that came with a Holga that I picked up a couple of years ago. I have no idea how this film was stored prior to my receiving it, probably in the box with the Holga, although I’ve stored it in the refrigerator since I’ve had it, which should at least reduce any further deterioration. To be on the safe side, I’ll expose the roll at ISO 25, and see what happens.
We took the Kiev 60 on a trip to Barra, and I had a lovely time walking the beach and the pier. With the Camera Meter app, an exposure of 1/500s at f2.8 was recommended and I used the Camera at that setting. After finishing the film in Vagueira, I unloaded the film back at home and was delighted to find that there were no signs of ‘fat’ rolls. A couple of days later I took the film to the lab.
Since I wasn’t sure what I would be getting from the Kiev, I opted for the development only option and brought the negatives home. On inspecting the negatives I was delighted to find that I had images! They were a little ‘thin’ but there was certainly something there. I’m not sure whether the underexpose was a result of the expired film or because I used it with the ND filter, but I was delighted that I got something.
Unfortunately, my attempted workaround for the overlapping frames wasn’t as successful, the first few frames were still overlapping. One the scans, I’ve shown the whole frame, so you can see what happened. I also got 12½ images out of the film, though the last was just me winding on the film at the end of the roll. But I have images, and I do love the Kiev-60. Who needs a Pentax 67, eh? I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
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*A few posts here and there that caught my eye.
#CrappyCommieCameraParty #Expired #Kiev60 #Mediumformat #Pentacon6 #Retro #Shittycamerachallenge #Slr #SovietCamera #Ukraine #Vintage
The Crappy Commie Camera Party: The One Where We Redscaled A Film Outside The Dark Bag
It’s the Crappy Commie Camera Party (CCCP) at the moment, and I thought I might have some fun. I was searching for information on expired film when I came across a fascinating article on the Lomography website. It was mostly about creative effects with expired film; souping films and exposing both sides (something I’ve actually just tried for the first time), but one paragraph caught my eye:
“When you’re reversing your film, instead of a darkbag or darkroom, try doing it in the light but canister to canister! I always keep a spare empty canister ready for EBS. I flip the roll of film over and tape it to the tab I left hanging out of my empty canister.
I make the canisters touch felts and sometimes tape them together before winding the film in upside down! It’s a lot more efficient, and you can do this on the go“.
Well, I was hooked. I had just decanted some Lomography ISO100 35mm film into a couple of Rapid canisters to try out a new (to me) camera, a lovely pink Beirette SL 100N, and I had an offcut left over. So I took the remnant of the film, and loaded one end into a reusable 35mm cassette. I then taped the two 35mm cassettes together with electrical tape to get as close seal as possible, wound wound the film from one to another. In the daylight!
My next choice was with which camera should try it with? Well, really that wasn’t much of a choice. It’s the Crappy Commie Camera Party, so it has to be a Soviet-era camera, and as it’s 35mm I thought I should use my favourite: the Lomo Smena 8M. We took the Smena 8M and the daylight redscaled film to Barra, and I used the film on a walk around the beach. The film was developed at the local lab in Aveiro, and home scanned with an Epson v750 Pro flat bed scanner and Epson Scan software.
To my complete surprise, we got images. In fact, for redscale they weren’t half bad. The negatives were as thin as anything I’ve ever seen, and full of leaks where the joined cassettes let some light in. I wasn’t sure if the thin negatives were because of the way the film was redscaled or because the film was somewhat expired and stored poorly. I had exposed the film at ISO 25, but I could probably have gone further. That said, the redscales were great and it was a great entry for the Crappy Commie Camera Party. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
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The Crappy Commie Camera Party: In Costa Nova With Expired Film And The Chaika II Half-frame Camera
A couple of months ago I picked up a dinky little camera, the Soviet era Chaika II (‘Seagull’). It was made in the Soviet Union, which is ideal for the ongoing Crappy Commie Camera Party (CCCP), and it’s a half-frame camera. I’m really getting into half-frame at the moment, with the Welta Penti II (which itself is fully CCCP compliant), and my favourite half-frame medium format camera, the Bencini Koroll 2.
Of course, my Seagull was in the ‘Not Passed’ category on the Kamerastore website, with ‘flaws that will affect typical use’ (in this case, ‘fungus on the inner lens elements’), but my test images with Harman Phoenix film came out great — well, as well as might be expected with a 60-odd years old camera — so I thought it might be a good time to try it out with an entry to the Crappy Commie Camera Party.
We were planning a trip out to Costa Nova, and I already had the Chaika II loaded with some expired (c.2004) Konica VX-100 colour film which I had taken to Barra but not used. Since film, especially colour film, loses light sensitivity over time, expired film, that is well past its sell-by date, needs to be exposed differently to normal film. The ‘rule of thumb’ for shooting expired film is to give it one extra stop of exposure for each decade after the expiry date, so I exposed this ISO 100 film at ISO 25. I used the Camera Meter app to measure the exposure, and left the shutter speed at 1/125s as it was a nice sunny day.
On our arrival at Costa Nova, we parked the car and took a coffee on the beach. Here I was able to take a few minimalist images of the beach featuring a little bit of sand and a lot of sky. After our coffee, we walked slowly (ambled?) towards the restaurant along the river front. Here I was able to take photographs of the typical striped houses of Costa Nova, and after lunch we stopped at the wonderful ‘deckchair’ sculpture, where I think I took my favourite images of the whole roll. There were still some frames left, so a few days later, on a trip to the lab to get some films developed, I took the Chaika II and used the last of the roll in Carris and Aveiro.
For a camera that was supposed to be filled with fungus the images with the expired film came out great! Unusually for me, this time there were hardly any light leaks, and the images were clear and quite detailed. Some of the other Chaika II entries for the CCCP that have been posted on BlueSky seemed rather ‘soft’, but there was little sign of that with these images, and I could not have been happier. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
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The Crappy Commie Camera Party: In Aveiro With The Zenit 11 And The Deakinizer
Preface: I’ve been a bit sluggish in publishing this post, many because I was so disappointed with how the images turned out after such promise from what I could see through the viewfinder. However, checking the negatives, they were really ‘thin’ and from what I can see need a couple of extra stops of exposure. So I’m going to have another ‘stab’ at this and thought I would publish the original version.
For the past month, at least, I’ve been waiting impatiently for June to arrive. It’s the start of the Crappy Commie Camera Party, the latest iteration of the Shitty Camera Challenge, and is a celebration of all things 20thcentury Eastern Bloc. Back in March, which seems like a lifetime ago, I picked up a Zenit 11 single lens reflex camera and two lenses, a CCCP compliant Industar-50-2, and a Cosina 50mm f1.8 lens. I also have a Pentacon 50mm f1.8 lens, but it’s stuck at the widest aperture.
Now the CCCP is upon us, it’s time to see how the Zenit behaves. For my first outing, I thought I would hit the ground running. I went to Aveiro to collect some film (and drop off some other rolls), and took the Zenit 11, the Pentacon 50mm f1.8, and the Panavision wide-angle converter, my ‘Deakinizer’. If you’re not familiar with the Deakinizer, it was a lens invented by cinematographer Roger Deakins that creates an image with a sharp(ish) centre to the frame and blurred edges. A cheap way to make a Deakinizer is to hold a wide-angle converter reversed in front of a camera lens, and I have the Panavision wide-angle converter (among several others, now) just for this purpose.
The filter thread of the Panavision is 67mm, so I created a 49-67mm step up attachment to fix the Deakinizer securely to the front of the lens. Through the viewfinder the images looked great, though at wide open aperture the shutter speeds required are beyond the capability of the Zenit. So what I’ve done is put an ND64 (6-stop) neutral density filter between the camera lens and the wide-angle converter that should allow me to use the fully open lens with the Deakinizer and get a decent shutter speed.
I loaded a roll of Lomography ISO 100 colour film into the Zenit (and remembered to reset the frame count to zero. For exposure I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at its box speed of ISO 100. I didn’t have much time in Aveiro, so it was a quick walk to the area around the Melia Ria hotel and up to my favourite little row of Buga bikes near the Forum shopping centre. I rushed through the film, sometimes taking photographs of the same subject from different angles, and hoping that something came out. After completing the film, I rewound it carefully — I’m always afraid of tearing the film I’m these old Soviet-era cameras — and dropped it off at the lab with the other films.
The results were not what I had hoped. Although the Zenit and the Deakinizer, and the ND64 filter, worked a treat, the final results were very soft and heavily vignetted. Yes, I nailed the exposure, but it was difficult to see what was going on in each of the frames. I’ve uploaded the complete album to Flickr so that you can judge for yourself, but I reckon I need to go back to the drawing board and test out some of my other wide-angle converters.
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Gearing up for the Crappy Commie Camera Party (Part IV): The Pentacon Electra 2, An Automatic Camera For SL Film
Anyone who has read this blog will know that I’ve really tumbled down the Rapid film system rabbit hole. It all started late in 2024, when I picked up a couple of Agfa’s Iso-Rapid IF cameras and the Welta Penti II (the ‘Golden Wonder’) for the Frugal Film Project. Since then, I’ve added several more Rapid film cameras to my collection, from a 1940s Agfa Karat — the original version of Agfa’s Rapid system — to 1960s Rapid cameras like the Voigtländer Vitoret Rapid D.
The 1940s Agfa Karat, the original Rapid film system.Although the Rapid film system was developed by the West German film company Agfa, in response to the launch of Kodak’s instamatic film system, East German camera companies soon developed their own version of Rapid film, known as the SL, or Schnell Lade (‘Speed Loading’) system. Eastern Bloc SL cameras used exactly the same format canisters as the Agfa Rapid system, the films are interchangeable, except that the SL canisters were made of plastic, not metal, like in the West.
The 1960s Smena SL. The Eastern Bloc copy of Agfa’s Rapid film cameras.I already have two SL format cameras, my beloved Smena SL, with its classic Triplet T-43 4/40 lens, and the ‘Golden Wonder’, which I think of as a Rapid camera but it was actually made in East Germany, and I had this ‘need’ for a couple more. I started my search with the SL System page on Wikipedia, which quite handily gives a list of SL format cameras at the bottom. I mentally crossed off the Smena SL and the Penti II, and started searching down the list on eBay.
In the end, I settled on a Pentacon Electra 2, an aperture priority automatic camera from the late 1960s, from a German seller. In the eBay post it was described as, ‘fully functional condition with age-appropriate signs of wear’, but what really convinced me to go with this model was a YouTube video about the camera which featured a close-up of the lens and its wonderful 60s style pictograms for the focusing distance markers.
The Pentacon Electra 2 is a camera that screams the 60s, from the amazing pictograms mentioned above to its Eastern Bloc brick-like shape — almost utilitarian. What is unusual about this camera is that it’s an automatic camera. Well, aperture priority — you set the exposure, sunny, hazy, or cloudy — and the camera sets the shutter speed. It’s powered by two AA batteries, and the CdS sensor is situated behind a little round window above the lens.
Being an SL format camera, there’s no rewind knob, and the top of the camera is plain apart from a hot shoe and a little window for the film counter. The camera actually came with a flash, but that flash is anything but portable. It’s huge, for one thing, and instead of taking batteries the flash is powered by a mains lead! On the bottom of the camera is a thread for a tripod and a cover for the battery compartment. Handily, the cover has a guide to the aperture settings and conditions.
On the front, to the right of the lens, is a little toggle switch that you can set the ISO of the film. There are two options, ISO 50 or 100. To the left of the lens is another toggle switch to set how the camera functions. This can be set to three options: Automatic (actually aperture priority), flash sync (1/125s), or flash sync for bulbs (1/30s). Below this toggle switch is the shutter lever.
Focus distance is presented in metres and feet around the lens. There are also those wonderful pictograms for distances for portraits, groups and landscapes. The aperture can be set to f2.8, f4.8, f8, and f13.5 with a lever on the bottom of the lens. You can see these as little icons through a window on the top of the lens for ‘tripod’ (fully open), cloudy, hazy and sunny conditions. If you turn the lens upside-down the lens has the f-numbers printed out. They are also on the battery cover.
On the back of the Electra is a wind-on knob with a large arrow showing the direction of travel of the film. This is important since the direction is right to left, instead of the customary left to right. When the film is wound on, the shutter is cocked with a satisfying ‘click’
I was keen to try out the Pentacon Electra 2, and loaded it with a roll of Harman Phoenix film that I have laying around (nowadays I always have some Phoenix, or Harman Red, decanted into Rapid canisters for the Frugal Film Project). Besides, it’s the Crappy Commie Camera Party, and I want to use the Pentacon for this, too. In my rush to get out, I was half way through the roll before I remembered that the box speed of Phoenix is actually ISO 100, so the film was underexposed by 1 stop. However, I came across a YouTube video where someone exposed Phoenix at ISO 100, so I’m hoping that I might have got away with it.
The results came out great! I needn’t have worried about rating the film at ISO 100 instead of the box speed of ISO 200. There were some light leaks, but I’m increasingly convinced that these are because of the lab loading these into the developing machine rather than leaks within the camera or SL canister. Instead of transferring the film to a 35mm cassette, this film was loaded straight from the SL canister, and there were still light leaks. On the frames thatdid not show light leaks, the exposure was spot on, and I reckon these are the best results I have had from Harman Phoenix.
I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
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Gearing Up For The Crappy Commie Camera Party, Part III: The Zorki-6 Rangefinder Camera
I’d never imagined needing another Soviet era camera for the Crappy Commie Camera Party (CCCP). After all, I have the Zenit 11 SLR and it’s collection of lenses, the Chaika II Half-frame, umpteen Smenas to play with, and the supremely dodgy KMZ Horizont panoramic camera. Surely that’s enough? But then a mutual on BlueSky posted about his Zorki-6, and, well, I’m sure that you can guess the rest.
Actually finding a Zorki-6 wasn’t that difficult. There are certainly a lot available on the ‘Bay. Eventually, I whittled my selection down to one reasonably priced model from Poland, and the deed was done. The item was described as follows, ‘I’m offering for sale a set consisting of a ZORKI-6 camera and an INDUSTAR-50 50mm f3.5 Tessar type lens. This is a “swirl bokeh” lens and it can be used with a mirrorless camera using an adapter.’ Well that was a plus point from the start. I have an LTM39/M43 adapter that I’d love to try with my mirrorless cameras.
The description of the condition of the camera was promising, ‘a nice looking camera with some traces of use [and] no major scratches or dents on the camera body.’ It continued, ‘The camera seems to be fully functional — shutter cocking and release work fine as do all the knobs and controls.’ So that was good. The condition of the lens was good, with ‘no visible scratches on the lenses. No fungus nor fog inside, maybe a few particles of dust … the aperture ring works properly, the focusing ring works a bit unevenly but no problems with focusing.’ So, all in all a decent enough cameras and, for that matter, my first rangefinder.
The Zorki-6 is a Soviet-era 35mm rangefinder camera, made by KMZ between 1959 and 1966. According to the serial number of the camera (620045286), the year of manufacture can be found from the first two numbers, which dates this one to 1962. The early Zorki models were based on the design of the Leica cameras, but by the time of the Zorki-6 they were a more ‘standalone’ design. The Zorki-6 will allow changing the shutter speeds before or after cocking the shutter, which is good because this always catches me out with older Soviet-era cameras like the KMZ Horizont. The shutter speeds are 30, 60, 125, 250, 500 (+B). The frame counter must be reset manually when changing films, so I know that’s going to catch me out.
The standard lens that came with the Zorki-6 was the Industar-50. This model was fitted with a silver M39-mount Industar 50mm f3.5 lens, serial number 5762482, which dates it at 1957. Focusing is achieved through a rangefinder, and as this is my first rangefinder camera I really expected to have problems. I needn’t have worried, though. After setting the diopter adjustment under the rewind knob it was quite clear to see the ‘ghost’ image in the viewfinder, and lining these up suggested the rangefinder was perfectly aligned.
Eager to test the camera, I loaded it with what I thought was an offcut of a roll of Harman Red film. After decanting some Harman Red into Rapid canisters, it seemed like a good idea to leave the rest in the 35mm cassette and use that to test out a new camera. However, instead of the 8—12 exposures I expected, I ended up getting around 22 exposures from the roll. Rewinding the film was a little awkward, you hold in the little button between the shutter button and the shutter speed selector, and turn the rewind knob.
For exposure I used the Camera Meter app and rated the film at ISO 125, which is the box speed of Harman Red. In the event, the exposure was fine. Harman Red kept its high contrast tonality, and some of the images came out really well. What I did notice, though, were the marks over many of the frames. I wasn’t sure what these were caused by, I did wonder if they were artefacts caused by the shutter curtains starting to fail.
All in all, though, I was delighted with how this roll came out. I’ve posted the whole roll in an album on my Flickr, light leaks and all, if you want to see the rest of the images.
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N. T. Crotser
Rose, The Sword Vixen
Rose LaCroix
/ˈsnæp.ʃɒt/