A rare ultra-wide-aperture lens built for Kiev rangefinder cameras in the Soviet Union is going under the hammer at the Leitz Photographica Auction this June.
The Rekord-4 is a 50mm 0.9 lens similar to the famous “Dream Lens” made by Canon for its Leica screw-mount rangefinder cameras in the 1960s, and was produced in 1972.
Leitz Photographica Auction said in its listing for the lens: “The Rekord-4 is an experimental high-aperture standard lens developed in the late 1960s by a team of optical engineers led by D Volosov, with contributions from I Driatskaya and N Khmelnikova, at the Zavod Arsenal factory in Kiev, USSR.
“Designed for Kiev rangefinder cameras, this lens features an exceptionally fast f/0.9 aperture, making it one of the most advanced lenses of its time. It was primarily developed for military and space applications, and only a few prototypes were produced. The lens never reached mass production, but samples from the experimental batch were exhibited at international events organised by the USSR Ministry of Defence Industry.
The Rekord-4 has a focal length of 52mm and was designed for a 24×36 mm film format, offering a 45-degree field of view. Its optical construction consisted of nine elements in six groups, with a resolving power of 42, 27, and 15 lines per mm.
The lens, which comes with a Kiev-5 rangefinder camera it was intended to be used with, is expected to sell for between €60,000 and €70,000 (£50,000 to £59,000).
Leitz Photographica Auction teased the lens in an Instagram post this week.
The auction takes place in Wetzlar, Germany, on 27 June.
Ukrainian photographic historian Ivan Zotikov gave Kosmo Foto more context on this particularly rare lens. He said: “In the 1960s, there was a tendency among manufacturers of optical-mechanical products to create ultra-fast optics. Designers and engineers from the Soviet Union did not remain on the sidelines of this process.
“In the city of Leningrad, the GOI (State Optical Institute) began to develop an optical scheme type (“Record”) of ultra-fast camera lenses. Calculation and production of such optics is an incredibly long and complex task. After all, the lens must provide sufficient sharpness, a working section, have acceptable weight and dimensions and a huge number of other parameters suitable for a specific camera model, as well as many nuances.
“These observances become particularly difficult with such a high lens speed of f/0.9. For this reason, the optical scheme contains nine elements in six groups and is very complex. The scheme is depicted in the book ‘Photographic Optic’ by D.S. Volosov, ‘Art, Edition 2’, 1978 – p.186. The camera lens was developed by a group of opticians headed by D Volosov, I Driatskaya and N Khmelnikova in the late 60s, the frame was developed by N Serb.
“In 1971-73, the Arsenal factory manufactured prototypes of the “Rekord-4” camera lens, intended for the external bayonet of the Kiev-5 camera. The first mention of the production of these prototypes was in the archive of the Arsenalets newspaper, issue 90, dated 30 November 1970. It talks about the factory’s new products and, in particular, about the “Rekord-4” lens for the Kiev-5. There is also a mention of this camera lens in the factory’s production report for 1973.
The camera lens was never mass-produced, samples from the pilot batch were demonstrated at international exhibitions, thematic exhibitions of the Ministry of Defence Industry, which was responsible for the optical-mechanical industry of the USSR. They were also presented in the exposition of the “House of Optics” in Moscow, where all samples approved by the State Optical Institute of S.I. Vavilov (Leningrad City) were transferred, and subsequently transferred to research institutes, design bureaus, large industrial enterprises for further use in scientific purposes.
“Currently, only a small number of samples of this lens are known to exist. Today, this modification of the lens can safely be called a “unicorn” – the way how collectors call items that are not available to the general public. The only known samples of the camera lens are currently in private collections.”
I'm a New Zealander who has been living in London since the mid-1990s, shooting film seriously since the year 2000. Kosmo Foto was launched in 2012 and has since become a film brand, with the release of my first films Kosmo Foto Mono 35mm (2017) and Kosmo Foto Mono 120 (2019).
I’m doing everything I can to promote film photography in the 21st Century, and help it survive and thrive. If you want to write something for Kosmo Foto, please drop me a line at foto.dowling@gmail.com.
I’d have to say that the use of the term “under the hammer” in relation to auctions of rare photographic items creates a rather unfortunate image in my mind.
Ha ha. It might be one of those super-soft hammers in kids TV shows….
I’ll admit not knowing any Russian has made my attempts half-baked at best, but I haven’t had any luck finding any photos taken through this lens. I’d be interested in a follow-up article if the buyer ends up using it, or any existing pictures can be found. It’s all well and good to put it up on display at an exhibition, but surely somebody would have asked if this thing actually takes a good shot.