Fed 5, broke the setting pin, I think

[john_van_v]

FSU can be challenging !!

I just got an new Fed 5 from ebay, and it worked for a while until I did something that broke it. I think I may have done this:

"The speed selector cannot be moved counterclockwise farther than the 1 second mark. DO NOT TRY! To go from on second to 1/30th you must turn the knob clockwise all the way around past B. Likewise, do not attemp to turn the speed selector clockise past the 1/30th mark."

Has anyone ever taken one these apart?

 

[mac_wt]

If you find an easy way to fix it; please share.
I have a FED 5 in similar condition waiting for repair. I started disassembling it, but found no obvious solution. I ended up buying another one with dented top cover and without lens and exchanged those parts with the broken camera. It seems the FED 5 is very sensible to this error. Other types might be more forgiving.

 

[wolves3012]

I can't remember if the FED 5 selector has a rivetted pin or is 1-piece cast. Either way, if you broke the arm off the selector you're in trouble. Epoxy adhesive may have enough strength to glue the broken parts if it's a clean break.

FED 5s are cheap enough just to buy another though...

 

[john_van_v]

Yeah -- replace it !!

I don't feel any personal blame that I did this as I can see this easily happening in the heat of a good photography session.

I am dissapointed that the factory evolved this camera for nearly 1/2 century w/o the cognisance that someone might spin this dial around. I think the separation of the high speed and low speed dials as on the older Leicas actually makes sense.

Of course the problem blocking the solving of the problem was Communism, also called super-capitalism. The history of the FED factory may have contributed also. FED started as a genuinely benefical social enterprise, a camera factory training school for displaced children. It was quickly was stolen by one of the class assh*les of all time, the founder of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, for whom the factory was named. The mixed karma would likely produce a camera that has both qualities coming from the original conception of the factory, and organizational defects introduced by the anti-empathy of the NKVD-- anti-empathy is common to all security agencies.

I like the feel of the camera, and I even think it looks good in person, though not in pictures. The shutter release is in the wrong place, being laterally behind the film advance, making you twist your finger to find it.

I guess I will keep it, as everything else works, as a shelf camera until sometime in the distant when it may become valuable and worth fixing.

I took the industar 61 lens off, of course, and put it on my Leica IIIC, and damn(!) it looks good 🙂 I hear this lens takes good pictures.

 

[Scarpia]

I have the identical Industar on my Leica M-1 and no complaints. It even balances well and is sharp on every camera I've used it on.

Kurt M.

 

[john_van_v]

Ok, I feel brave again; I am going to bid on a Jup-3

 

[Jocko]

FED started as a genuinely benefical social enterprise, a camera factory training school for displaced children. It was quickly was stolen by one of the class assh*les of all time, the founder of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, for whom the factory was named. The mixed karma would likely produce a camera that has both qualities coming from the original conception of the factory, and organizational defects introduced by the anti-empathy of the NKVD-- anti-empathy is common to all security agencies.

One often hears this sort of thing, but it is completely untrue. The Dzerzhinsky Labour Commune was founded by the OGPU, the direct predecessor of the NKVD, and the organisation responsible for the Gulag system. Far from being based on empathy, Director Makarenko's (brilliantly successful) educational approach was based on discipline, transformation and self-sacrifice in favour of the collective. Other Soviet educationalists regarded the regime he imposed as repressive, reactionary and harsh. On the plus side it provided self-respect and material and emotional security in appalling times. The value of such things cannot be underestimated.

The OGPU/NKVD actually controlled large sections of the Soviet economy, with a frequent involvement in high-technology goods. Far from damaging the commune, such control undoubtedly preserved it during the famine of 1932-3, which was effectively used to break the Ukraine in the interests of Soviet power. The "take over" of the factory by the NKVD in 1934 is simply a misunderstanding of an organisational change that merged the OGPU with other bodies and created the "modern" NKVD.

Things worth reading -

http://www.fedka.com/Useful_info/Commune_by_Fricke/commune_intro.htm

http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/makarenko/index.html

Cheers, Ian

 

[napchop]

NKVD Fed

NKVD Fed

The official history states that the Fed workers collective (actually an orphanage) 'came under nominal control of the NKVD in 1936' The first cameras were produced in 1935 and the factory was already named after F.E.D. before producing cameras they made machine tools, furniture and agricultural tools. Many other factories were 'under the control of the NKVD' at this time. It didnt mean anything as such. And dosnt explain the inflated prices of the NKVD Feds

 

[Muller]

I have a plastig bag full o' FED 5B at home (won't be there for at least a week maybe).
If you can show me what the part is, it's yours gratis.

LMK

 

[wolves3012]

I guess I will keep it, as everything else works, as a shelf camera until sometime in the distant when it may become valuable and worth fixing.

I took the industar 61 lens off, of course, and put it on my Leica IIIC, and damn(!) it looks good 🙂 I hear this lens takes good pictures.

Go for it, if you get the part from Muller - go for it, it's not a difficult job!

As for the I-61L/D, they're a very good lens - pin-sharp and good saturation and contrast. One looks good on my Zorki 1 or 2C as well!

 

[john_van_v]

I have a plastig bag full o' FED 5B at home (won't be there for at least a week maybe).
If you can show me what the part is, it's yours gratis.

LMK

What is your story ??