Goodbye to the Red FED

[Gordon Coale]

It's time to say goodbye to the Red FED and the Zorki 4. It isn't easy but they are going to good homes. They will be birthday presents for two of my kids. (My oldest alread has a Fed 2.) Katie (26) and Robby (24) have taken photography courses before so they do know their way around a camera but they haven't used a rangefinder. Katie actually has an OM1 but it needs some repair work and she hasn't been able to afford it. She has been reduced to using disposable cameras. Robby is totally cameraless. Neither has a light meter so I printed out the Sunny 16 rule on a business card and made up an expsoure calculator slide rule. It's based on Rick Oleson's Pocket Exposure Calculator. I couldn't read the text on his when it was printed out. (Curse these old eyes!) I put it in Photoshop and redid the text and added an "f22 sand or snow". That should do them fine. It will probably do me fine! I now have one in the back pocket of my Moleskine notebook that I have with me all the time. The Sunny 16 business card is now in my wallet.

The Zorki 4 I got from darkkavenger. I got it for the tabbed J8 on it so the body was extra. That made my black minty J8 also extra. Well, not quite. I haven't gotten around to relubing the tabbed J8 so my I-50 is on my Zorki 3M for now. The Red FED was my first user FSU camera. I hate to give it up but since I got my Leica IIIc rebuilt and then got a Zorki 3M, the little FED has been sitting on a shelf. I had delusions of using it for my J9 but three bodies is too much. So off it goes. Life can be so cruel! So the black minty J8 goes on the FED 2 to Katie and an extra I-61 goes on the Zorki 4 for Robby. I will miss the FED 2 but I still have the broken one I got from Joe. (Joe sold it as broken.) I had thought of fixing it myself but don't have the time. If I feel the need of another FED 2 it will go off to Oleg.

 

[zuikologist]

They look great - lucky kids!

 

[ampguy]

some tips

some tips

Gordon,

I'll tell you a little known secret about quick exposure tricks,

For indoors, just use print negative film and 2.8 or 3.5 and 1/30th, tell them not to shake or have their subject moves. Rarely have a bad indoor shot with those settings.

Outdoors, the sunny f16/f11 rule is OK, but if it's too complicated, just tell them to move the 2.8/3.5 to f8 or f11 outdoors and all is good.

It's time to say goodbye to the Red FED and the Zorki 4. It isn't easy but they are going to good homes. They will be birthday presents for two of my kids. (My oldest alread has a Fed 2.) Katie (26) and Robby (24) have taken photography courses before so they do know their way around a camera but they haven't used a rangefinder. Katie actually has an OM1 but it needs some repair work and she hasn't been able to afford it. She has been reduced to using disposable cameras. Robby is totally cameraless. Neither has a light meter so I printed out the Sunny 16 rule on a business card and made up an expsoure calculator slide rule. It's based on Rick Oleson's Pocket Exposure Calculator. I couldn't read the text on his when it was printed out. (Curse these old eyes!) I put it in Photoshop and redid the text and added an "f22 sand or snow". That should do them fine. It will probably do me fine! I now have one in the back pocket of my Moleskine notebook that I have with me all the time. The Sunny 16 business card is now in my wallet.

The Zorki 4 I got from Mango. I got it for the tabbed J8 on it so the body was extra. That made my black minty J8 also extra. Well, not quite. I haven't gotten around to relubing the tabbed J8 so my I-50 is on my Zorki 3M for now. The Red FED was my first user FSU camera. I hate to give it up but since I got my Leica IIIc rebuilt and then got a Zorki 3M, the little FED has been sitting on a shelf. I had delusions of using it for my J9 but three bodies is too much. So off it goes. Life can be so cruel! So the black minty J8 goes on the FED 2 to Katie and an extra I-61 goes on the Zorki 4 for Robby. I will miss the FED 2 but I still have the broken one I got from Joe. (Joe sold it as broken.) I had thought of fixing it myself but don't have the time. If I feel the need of another FED 2 it will go off to Oleg.

 

[darkkavenger]

and how's going that Zorki-4 with the tabbed J-8 that came from me ? 😉 Any news about the pentacon six straps, Gordon ? 😀

 

[Gordon Coale]

Max -- My memory isn't what it never was. That Zorki isn't from mango but from you! The tabbed J8 had a few cleaning marks and I did some comparative tests between my minty black J8 and the tabbed J8 and couldn't tell the difference. It is stiff and needs to be relubed but life has been too full and I haven't had a chance to do it yet. Not having a J8 should be impetus to get off this computer and relube the thing so I can use it. I do love those J8s. And I love tabs. I never ran filim through the Zorki but it seems to be working just fine. I'm sure my son will love it.

Two other lapsed memory things. I put the deluxe 40.5mm lenscaps from Fedka on both cameras. He has a reduced price on them and they are very nice. I also ordered, but not in time, a couple of ventilated lens hoods from heavystar, on eBay, for both cameras as well as an extra one for my tabbed J8 I need to relube.

The solution for the Pentacon 6 straps that I thought I had didn't work out. I've been having to deal with my mother-in-law who has Alzheimer's and getting new things done has been slow. I still need to get my TLR straps up. I'm still trying to come up with a solution for cameras with posts. My Salut-S has the same posts and I want a neck strap on it but that won't happen until I figure it out. It will happen. I wish I knew when.

 

[darkkavenger]

I'm sorry to hear about family troubles, Gordon, we've had a relative who had the same troubles and it wasn't easy at all. I'm still muscular enough to carry the PSix and the 180/2.8 sonnar by hand but after some time it starts to hurt a bit 🙂

I was asking about the Zorki because it reminded me of how cute this one looked, my first engraved one by the way! I got a Contax-III from FrankS recently so once it's back from H. Scherer (in a good while) i'll get a strap for it too 🙂 except if you want to trade for what I'll have by then *grins* 😉 :angel:

Be well!
Max