The Pentacon Six lens mount is found on a remarkably wide range of cameras:

• The Praktisix, which is the predecessor of the Pentacon Six
• the Pentacon Six and Pentacon Six TL
• In some countries these cameras were marketed as “Hanimex Praktica” or “Hanimex 66”
• The Kiev 6C, which is the predecessor of the Kiev 60
• The Kiev 60
• The Kiev 90 (645 format)
• The Exakta 66 Mk I – Mk III manufactured between the 1980s and 2000+
various versions of the Kiev 88 fitted either by the manufacturer or other suppliers with a variation of the Pentacon Six mount.

The Pentacon Six

The Pentacon Six is a high quality medium format single lens reflex camera taking 120 and 220 film for 12 or 24 exposures that are nominally 6cm x 6cm (2¼ x 2¼ inches) – actually 56mm x 56mm, as is standard for medium format cameras.  A TTL metering prism (shown on this camera) is available, as well as an enormous range of lenses and other accessories.  The camera and its predecessor, the Praktisix, was manufactured in East Germany (the GDR) between the mid 1950s and 1990.

To read about using flash with the Pentacon Six, click here.

The Kiev 60 is manufactured by Arsenal in Kiev, Ukraine.  It is broadly modelled on the German Pentacon Six, and uses the same lens mount.  It is shown here with the TTL metering prism.  The previous Arsenal version of this camera was called the Kiev 6C.  It differs by having the shutter release on the left-hand side, and by also accepting 220 film for 24 exposures, as well as 120 film (12 exposures).

A lug on the aperture ring of lenses from Joseph Schneider, Bad Kreuznach, transmits the chosen aperture value to the meter.

When the Exakta 66 was launched in what was at that time West Germany, shops carrying it displayed an impressive range of lenses and other accessories, in stylishly-designed boxes carrying the logo of the new camera.

The Kiev 88 has been available for many years, and is in fact a newer version of a range of cameras all inspired, modelled on or copied from the Hasselblad 1600F and its immediate successor, the 1000F.  The Hasselblad 1600F was launched in October 1948. It had a stainless steel focal plane shutter with a top speed of 1/1,600 sec. Problems with this shutter led to the release of the Hasselblad 1000F (with a maximum shutter speed of 1/1000 sec) in late 1953.  In 1957 Hasselblad abandoned the production of medium format cameras with focal plane shutters, and introduced the 500C, which used lens with shutters in them.  However, the orginal Hasselblad “clone” (if that is what it was), produced by the Arsenal factory in Kiev, Ukraine in 1957 and named the “Salyut” was virtually identical with the Hasselblad 1600F and had a top speed marked 1/1500 sec.  Its lens mount was the same as the Hasselblad 1600F mount, and this is not compatible with the Pentacon Six.  The Salyut was produced from 1957 to 1972, and was sometimes marketed, at least in the U.K., with the name “Zenith-80”.  In Germany, it was sold by Foto-Quelle with their brand name, “Revue 6×6” or “Review 80”.  In 1972 this camera became the Salyut-S, with a maximum shutter speed of 1/1000 sec.  The Salyut-S was apparently available until 1980, although from 1975 onwards some of these cameras were produced with the name Kiev-80.  From 1980 onwards, the camera was called the Kiev-88.  However, all these cameras had the original Hasselblad 1600F type lens mount, and therefore do not interest us if we are looking for a camera that can use our Pentacon-Six mount lenses.

The Kiev 88 begins to be of interest to us from about 1994, when some of these cameras were modified by changing the lens mount to accept Pentacon-Six mount lenses.  As the distance from the front of the camera to the film plane is greater on the Hasselblad and the Kiev 88 than on the Pentacon-Six, this mount had to be recessed within the front of the body, and some of the early modifications did not accept all Pentacon-Six mount lenses.  For limitations on the compatibility of this modified mount, see Compatibility Issues.

The first Kiev 88 with Pentacon Six mount to be readily available in the West was marketed in Germany by Brenner Fotoversand,.  The camera pictured above was supplied by them, and has also been fitted with a wind crank by KievUSA.  In this picture the Carl Zeiss Jena 120mm Biometar is mounted on the camera.

The viewfinder mounting on the Kiev 88 is compatible with the Hasselblad viewfinder mounting, which allows inter-changeability of waist level finders and prisms.  Although the Hasselblad and Kiev film magazines look virtually identical, they are slightly different and cannot be swapped between the two brands of camera.  However, there are also versions of the Kiev 88 that have been modified either by the manufacturers or by others to make the film magazine compatible with Hasselblad.  A good source for this in the past has been Mike Fourman at Kiev Camera, but his website is no longer running at the present time (March 2007), so I suggest that you contact some of the other vendors listed on my Links page.

For a review of the Kiev 88-6 from Brenner shown above, click here.

Not compatible with the Pentacon Six, but for comparison purposes, here is a Hasselblad 500C with the standard Carl Zeiss Oberkochen 80mm Planar mounted on the camera.  This camera is here fitted with an Arsenal metering prism designed for the Kiev 88.  For the lens tests, comparison shots were taken with this camera and some Carl Zeiss Oberkochen lenses.

Other Cameras

But why buy the Pentacon Six or Exakta 66?  Why not one of its rivals: other Medium Format SLR cameras in the 35mm style?
The two most obvious rivals are:

• the Norita 66
• the Pentax 6×7

To read “Myths about the Pentacon Six” click here.

To choose other options, click below.
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© TRA January 2002, June 2008