Salyut-S Background
The Cалют C aka Salyut-S / Salut-S / Saliut-S, poor thing this is enough to give it serious identity issues.
It was made in Kiev, Ukraine at the Arsenal factory, between 1957 and 1973. They were made in small numbers due to their price, about four hundred Rubles, the equivalent of six months of salary of an average Soviet citizen. 
It's a Hasselblad clone, in the line of the 1000F, with a focal plane shutter.

The focal plane shutter uses metal curtains travelling horizontally. The shutter speeds range from one-half of a second to 1/1000 and B, the shutter selector is a multifunction device, it also serves as film advance and shutter cocking.

The film is loaded in the magazines and, using the back window, advanced to the first frame, afterwards the advance is automatically controlled until the twelfth is reached, and the film ends. 
The magazines and the camera have opposite tiny round windows, which might display a red or white colour, which must coincide, when mounting the magazine, and stand for the state of the film, exposed or advanced, and shutter cocked or not.
The back window cover displays a film reminder.
The magazines use a metal dark slide, to allow mid-roll magazine exchange. One must be very careful not to lose them.

The frame size is 6x6cm in 120 roll film.

It can be used with several finders like the waist level or the prismatic. I have both been the prismatic TTL metered. A curious fact is that it's the only accessory interchangeable with the Hasselblad. 
I'm biased to the WLF, it's particularly good for low perspectives.

The standard lens was a Volna-3 (Волна-3) 80mm 1:2.8 or a Vega-12V (Bега-12V) 90mm 1:2.8


How and why I got it
This camera has some interesting stories.
The first one is about why I bought it. It all started when I bought a Kiev-6S (КИЕВ-6С), I'll talk about it in another opportunity.
I found in another auction a beautiful Mir-26B (Мир-26B) 45mm 1:3.5, wide-angle lens, with the Salyut mount.
Looking and finding an adapter to use Salyut lenses on a Pentacon Six was easy, which theoretically shares the mount with the Kiev-6S.
The camera arrived with its Vega-12b (Вега-12 Б) 90mm 1:2.8, everything was perfect.
Then arrived the new lens and the adapter. The adapter didn't fit.
A few days later we had a photo walk, and I asked my friend Sérgio Moura, to bring his Pentacon Six.
Amazingly my Vega-12 b lens perfectly fitted his camera, his Biometar also fitted my camera, the adapter and the Mir-26B fitted the Pentacon Six(?)

Making a long story short I started looking for a camera for my lens and I found it:



This complete Salyut-S kit
Volna-3 (Волна-3) 80mm 1:2.8
Waist level finder
Metered prismatic finder
Pistol grip
Lens hoods, two film magazines and a brown leather case.

I included in the picture the Mir-26B.


How did it turn red?
Now I had a camera for my beautiful lens, but I wasn't pleased with the looks of the leatherette covering the camera and decided to make a complete makeover.

First, I stripped all the leatherette and removed all the old glue, using acetone.
Yes, I slept soundly after that, although I had some funny dreams.

I got this:

 

 

A naked Salyut

Then I found some, self-adhesive, red faux crocodile and used it to cover it:

  

 

That's how I got my Red Salyut.
I thought it was appropriate, giving its origin and the period when it was made.
This is a commie camera and it's proud of it.

As a photographic instrument is kind of unpredictable, I blame the shutter.

Anyway, when she is on one of her good days the results fully satisfy me

 

 

If you like it, you can see some more photos taken with it in my Flickr album Salyut-S Photos.

 

Later I took it to the famous camera technician, the late Adriano. When he saw it, he asked me in amazement:

"- What is this?

A fire truck?"

After an overhaul of the shutter, it became a little less unpredictable.


Stay Tuned!