Fed 3 Self Timer Lever

[dave74]

A simple query. So far I have only seen this lever pointing downward (in photos of Fed 3 bodies) yet the 2 I just got thru eBay both have their levers pointing up. Any known reason for this or may it just be a batch difference? One body has S/N's on baseplate as well as next to the V/F window (different!) and the other is tagged on the baseplate only.

 

[Nickfed]

The Zorki lever is on a square drive and on my 6 points up. It could go on any of four ways and not make any difference. You can bet the FED is the same. This, and the mixing of the serial number, if that is what the numbers are, seems to indicate the cameras may be cobbled up from dead ones. This could be a good thing as it suggests somebody has taken some trouble to make up something that works.

 

[pshinkaw]

I believe that some models were made with an upward pointing lever and others with a downward pointing lever. If you have the ever-ready case that came with the camera you can usually tell because there will be a cut-out for the original configuration. My cases show that the lever direction was intentional.

I don't know for sure why they were made with these differences, but it may have had something to do with the focusing tab on some lenses colliding with the lever. Some early model Industar-26m's on Fed-2's have a focusing tab that makes them look like Jupiter-8's. This tab was omitted on later I-26 models, and may never have appeared on the Industar 61's that followed on the Fed-3's. Also, the collapsible lenses all had focusing tabs. I'm speculating of course, but the change in lever design may have been to allow for compatibility between older lenses and newer bodies.

-Paul