Mahe
Newbie
I have been reading this forum for a few weeks now and I'm propably going to ask some stupid questions and maybe share some thoughts here in the future so I think an introduction is a good idea for a first post.
I'm 31 years old software angineer from Finland. I've had photography as a more or less serious hobby for a few years now, although I have owned some kind of camera since I was nine or ten years old.
I got bitten by the FSU camera bug about three years ago when I bought a Fed-2 from local flea market. At that time I did most of my photography with DSLR but the Fed made me try b&w film development and printing and before I knew there was no going back. Soon I had a second Fed-2 body and a japanese film SLR.
Finally, about 1,5 years ago I sold my digital outfit to finance the purchase of ARAX Kiev-88 MF system having bought a Kiev-6c with two CZJ lenses on a whim a little earlier. At that time I had also sold off my Feds because I thought that what I needed was SLR.
But that wasn't the end of my story with FSU rangefinders 🙂 I had read much about Kontax rangefinders and this spring I saw one on sale on a finnish photo forum and bought it. Soon after I was at a local used equipment show and found a turret finder that unfortunately had a Kiev body and two lenses (J-8 and J-12) attached to it 😀
My original Kiev (4a from 1972, 1/1250s version) worked fine but the one that came with the turret finder (4a from 1977, 1/1000 top speed) had serious shutter issues. So off they went to Oleg for a complete overhaul. Yesterday I got email from Oleg that my cameras are ready to be shipped back. I can't wait to get them back and start shooting. In fact while waiting for their repair I went to the fleamarket again and now I have two Fed-3s taken apart on my desk :bang:. I'm hopeless.
Why FSU cameras then? First of all, they are fully mechanical. The main reason I changed from digital back to film was the handicraft aspect of the "chemical" photography. Fully mechanical camera is a major part of the pleasure found in photography for me. Secondly, they are affordable. It's not financially big deal to buy one and take it apart for just the heck of it. I'm an engineer so it is in my genes to take things apart and find out how they work 🙂
Last but not least comes a certain nostalgia connected to FSU itself. It is hard to describe but having grown up in Finland in the shadow of the giant, these products of the dreaded communist system and the history behind them have a certain feeling of a world lost in the past that feeds my imagination. German or japanese quality cameras propably would be better choices from purely photographic point of view but there just would be something missing.
So, now I'm hopelessly stuck with these horrible old clunkers and havin the time of my life 🙂. I'm propably going to hunt down the whole lens lineup for my Kievs as I'm planning to do most of my 35mm shooting with them. I'll propably continue tinkering with the easier LTMs found plentiful but mostly broken in local flea markets. For that I have alreay found this forum a great source of information, hopefully I can contribute something myself sometime.
I'm 31 years old software angineer from Finland. I've had photography as a more or less serious hobby for a few years now, although I have owned some kind of camera since I was nine or ten years old.
I got bitten by the FSU camera bug about three years ago when I bought a Fed-2 from local flea market. At that time I did most of my photography with DSLR but the Fed made me try b&w film development and printing and before I knew there was no going back. Soon I had a second Fed-2 body and a japanese film SLR.
Finally, about 1,5 years ago I sold my digital outfit to finance the purchase of ARAX Kiev-88 MF system having bought a Kiev-6c with two CZJ lenses on a whim a little earlier. At that time I had also sold off my Feds because I thought that what I needed was SLR.
But that wasn't the end of my story with FSU rangefinders 🙂 I had read much about Kontax rangefinders and this spring I saw one on sale on a finnish photo forum and bought it. Soon after I was at a local used equipment show and found a turret finder that unfortunately had a Kiev body and two lenses (J-8 and J-12) attached to it 😀
My original Kiev (4a from 1972, 1/1250s version) worked fine but the one that came with the turret finder (4a from 1977, 1/1000 top speed) had serious shutter issues. So off they went to Oleg for a complete overhaul. Yesterday I got email from Oleg that my cameras are ready to be shipped back. I can't wait to get them back and start shooting. In fact while waiting for their repair I went to the fleamarket again and now I have two Fed-3s taken apart on my desk :bang:. I'm hopeless.
Why FSU cameras then? First of all, they are fully mechanical. The main reason I changed from digital back to film was the handicraft aspect of the "chemical" photography. Fully mechanical camera is a major part of the pleasure found in photography for me. Secondly, they are affordable. It's not financially big deal to buy one and take it apart for just the heck of it. I'm an engineer so it is in my genes to take things apart and find out how they work 🙂
Last but not least comes a certain nostalgia connected to FSU itself. It is hard to describe but having grown up in Finland in the shadow of the giant, these products of the dreaded communist system and the history behind them have a certain feeling of a world lost in the past that feeds my imagination. German or japanese quality cameras propably would be better choices from purely photographic point of view but there just would be something missing.
So, now I'm hopelessly stuck with these horrible old clunkers and havin the time of my life 🙂. I'm propably going to hunt down the whole lens lineup for my Kievs as I'm planning to do most of my 35mm shooting with them. I'll propably continue tinkering with the easier LTMs found plentiful but mostly broken in local flea markets. For that I have alreay found this forum a great source of information, hopefully I can contribute something myself sometime.
