Fed 3 'in camera' cropping.

[fishric]

I have a Fed 3 (lever wind), and from the first test roll I noticed that the top edge of every frame is cropped. It seems that the film is sitting too low in the camera and the bottom edge is being masked by the internal frame. (The image is inverted at this point of course).
Is there a simple cure for this , or should I continue to live with it?
See my examples below, the sloping horizon is my own work.
Regards, Richard F.

 

[reagan]

I had a similar problem on a Zorki 4 that I no longer own, though it didn't seem to be as pronounced as your example. Also, it was only an occasional problem... it would be there for one roll and gone on the next. Therefore, I basically just lived with it. Have you shot other rolls since?

 

[DaveP]

Looks like the light shields, you can loosen them to adjust them or bend them over a bit......

 

[fishric]

Fed3 cropping

Fed3 cropping

Thanks for the replies, if you look at my pic below you will see that my problem is the positioning of the of the film in camera.
The exposed emulsion at the bottom of the film is almost into the sprocket holes and there is a definite gap at the top, remembering this is upside down in the camera, this suggests that the film needs to be shifted upwards to centre it in the camera's masking frame.
Maybe I should just live with and continue to enjoy the camera, doing the serious stuff with the Pentaxes. The lens I use most on the Fed is a 35mm jupiter allowing greater depth of field and cropping space.
Regards, Richard F.

 

[pvdhaar]

This could of course be considered the charm of a camera that's designed well before machine printing became commonplace..

It may happen on all your films, but is the amount dependent on how you stick the film in the take up spool? Another thought, but here my ignorance of this particular camera body probably shines, is whether it's been disassembled and the sprocket wheel has been reinstalled upside down.

 

[Andrew McK]

Ah-hah

Ah-hah

I have the EXACT same problem!
only with a FED4
You can see it on my pic here. I t was in the first few rolls and it is a charm of the camera, makes it easy to spot which camera I used.

Take a look at the take up spool. or rather the bit where it slots into. On mine it looks to be a tiny bit out of place very slightly squint I think. So I put the filme onto the take up spool in a way to compensate for it, so that it will always wind on smoothly.
And it sort of worked at the start of the film but not at the end.

The weird thing is
My last couple of films taken with it don't have it.
I found a regular place to get my developing done and I've stuck to them so they must have adjusted something to make sure I don't get it anymore
I really need to ask them next time.

I didn't mind having the black strip. it was quirky and unique to that camera but seeing what it can do without it, well you are not going to want to go back to having it.

 

[reagan]

Similar problem here not long ago by FarmerSteve.