First impression

[vanyagor]

I have purchased a bunch of feds over the last month and some of them have arrived already. I'd like to share my experince in purchasing feds here.

All cameras have been purchased from ebay.

First of all I should say I'm very satisfied with the outcome. Shipping was usually pretty fast (considering the cameras were shipped from Ukraine/Russia). Quality of the cameras was very good. And I was amazed of the quality of pictures. I'm not an experienced film shooter, but the results were much better than expected.

None of the cameras I got so far (I have 8 of them right now) had any problems with focusing or light leaks.

I have 1 fed-1, 4 fed-2, 1 fed-3, 1 fed-5 and 1 Zorki-3M right now.

My general observation is that the older is the camera the better is it build 🙂 The best one being fed 1. It is also the smallest one.

Let me briefly describe all of those cameras:

- fed 1: by far the smallest and best build camera, quite shutter and very smooth in operation. No problems I have noticed so far. Definitely my favourite. Mine was made in 1937. It has a fed 3.5/50mm collapsible lens. Now I changed it to aJupiter 8 to see if that will work.

- fed 2: I have tested 2 out of 4 of them so far. 1 is very good. Well build, working smoothly. It is quite bigger than fed-1. What is good about it is wider rangefinder base. Another one has some issues wich are not noticable from the start. Namely it has problems with advancing film, so I had to be extremely carefull when cocking the shutter. It's a strange problem. When I try to cock the shutter it returns on it's own in the middle of the process, so I got most shots bad. The shutter button is not as smooth as fed-1 and my other fed-2 either.

- fed-3: it has slow speeds, though B-mode is not working. Somehow the shuttewr does not stay open. However if you push a little on the shutter dial while shooting, the shutter gets opened and stays this way untill you release the shutter button. Can it be fixed easily?

Also external condition of that fed-3 was not very good (which could be noticed from the pictures seller offered if you look carefully, which I didn't). fed-3 is even bigger than fed-2

I haven't completed testing other cameras yet (no problems so far).

The sellers I liked the most were: sokrat-photo, kubanoid, alex-photo.

I have also purchased some lenses. All of them were as described and even better than I expected. Condition of glas was very good (imho).

(I was shooting B&W only so far)

Bottomline: if you are buying from e-bay look carefully at the pictures posted. In general cameras with external problms had some internal issues as well.

2 problems I have encountered: non working B mode on fed 3 (with slow speeds) and problems with shutter cocking (not sure if that's the right word) on one of the fed 2. Can someone help with those problems?

Thanks

 

[vanyagor]

I was also wondering what should I buy to complement my camera. I did purchase Jupiter-8 lens, Jupiter-3 lens and I'm trying to get Jupiter-12, though they look too expensive right now. I also baught a turret viewfinder and a macro lens + a set of filters.

Can someone point me to a resource that explains when you'd use certain filters?

 

[nzeeman]

here is some help for filters http://www.ilfordphoto.com/applications/page.asp?n=45

 

[vanyagor]

Thanks for the link

 

[Spyderman]

I think the J-8 won't work on the FED 1. Since it's a pre-war model, it probably doesn't have standardized lens register distance and will probably work well only with its original lens. If you reset the register to the proper LTM distance 28.8mm, you will be able to use new lenses, but not the original lens.

BTW: Both problems you encountered with your FED 2 and 3 can be rapaired. Just look closely on the sprockets and the mechanism of releasing the shutter. It has something to do with the sprocket-wheel's up-down position, or dirt in the release shaft.

 

[brachal]

None of the cameras I got so far (I have 8 of them right now) had any problems with focusing or light leaks.

I'd say you've been very lucky. As far as other lenses or accessories go ...

All of the Jupiters are very good. A properly working Jupiter-3 is a thing of great joy and beauty. The 85mm Jupiter-9 and 135mm Jupiter-11 are both worth having, especially the J9. The J-12 is a great 35mm. I'm also a big fan of the turret finder.

If you google around, you can find several sites that discuss owning and servicing FSU cameras, especially Feds. Good luck, and welcome to the asylum🙂

 

[vanyagor]

Btw, does anyone know what happened to fzorkis website and to Stephen's Rothery website?

Bill and Ondrej, thanks for comments.

 

[w3rk5]

I was also wondering what should I buy to complement my camera. I did purchase Jupiter-8 lens, Jupiter-3 lens and I'm trying to get Jupiter-12, though they look too expensive right now. I also baught a turret viewfinder and a macro lens + a set of filters.

A Jupiter-9 maybe.🙂 But I think they're more expensive than the Jupiter-12.