He Who Buys a Fed Buys Junk!

[StillKicking]

For my part I have now owned 6 Zorki's.. a 4 (X2), 4K, 3, 3M and S. All good.. not as good as my Leica Iiic but the Zorki 3 is a lovely camera to use and in my opinion the most refined and best made of the all my FSU camera's.

With Kiev's I have had mixed experiences. When they work they are great but hey are too delicate and I have sold the lot.

The Fed 1's and 2's that I have used have all been fine but have never worked as smoothly as my Zorki's.

I bought most of my cameras on e-bay but only from camera dealers with a 99.9% or higher rating. I have also used Fedka and been very happy with the service I received.

I had a Canon IV.. the shutter gave nothing but trouble.

In the end 50 or 60 year old cameras are always a risk... that's half the fun of owning them.

 

[rxmd]

Oh, and yeah, a Kiev 88 is indeed big and heavy, compared to a Leica, but that has exactly zip to do with photo quality. Heck, I just finished sawing up, carrying and stacking the wood from four fairly big and badly snow-damaged white pines today, and it didn't kill me, so the weight of any camera that was designed to be used handheld really isn't that much trouble.

If that were so easy, you wouldn't be using folders.

Elsewhere, when asked about what film you use for your 4x5' prints from 6x9 negatives, you mention Bluefire, which is available only in 35mm. Not to mention Ukrania or the RSFSR.

This is turning into a willy-waving exercise and as such is rather silly.

 

[Igor.Burshteyn]

I have kiev4. Body itself is prone to light leaks, lenses flare easily, viewfinder is small and dark, ergonomics are nightmare. Due to all said I didn't take it off the shelve for some year or so.
But I just looked through a few dozen of prints, each done with different cameras/lenses. Nothing matters, just final image, right? Fair enough. Well, I must say my old beater kiev4 with jupiter 9 lens captured some of my family's best memories. I like portraits from that combination, old sonnar look, creamy and sharp at the same time. I will load my kiev with film, again - it deserves to be used. I believe I can live with its quirks - as soon as my income doesn't depend on it.

 

[fuji645]

Guess the title says it all. Just buy a Leica or even a Bessa, don't screw around w/ a FSU camera. I will NEVER buy another one of these pieces of junk ever again.

It all started a few years ago when I bought a Zorki 4. Great viewfinder, but I never could get a whole roll of photos out of it due to intermittent shutter capping. Sold it a loss and decided, what the heck, this guy Oleg in the Ukraine is highly rated, I'll buy a camera from him. They're supposed to be fully ckd out and CLA'd. Ha! The Fed 1 I bought arrived in the customary brown paper and yak string and at first I was happy. It sure looked good, but after a roll of film it was apparent the shutter was full of pin holes. So I sent it back, waited forever, and it came back w/ new shutter curtains and a freebie J8 lens he threw in. Guess what? The new shutter had pinholes. Not as many as the first ones, but enough to ruin almost every photo. Sold it at a loss.

Bought a Fed 2. Worked great for one roll. A miracle! But the second roll showed, what else, pin holes in the shutter. Sat it aside.

Bought a Fed 2 that had been CLA'd from a member here. Light leaks on the first roll. Tried to see where they were coming from, tried another back on it from my other bad Fed 2. Light leaks again. Sent it back to the seller and lost the shipping money both ways.

Bought two Fed 2's from fleabay, thinking MAYBE one will work. First one arrived. Hey, where's the strap lugs? Turns out that some of the later models didn't have them. OK, that's on me. Should have looked at the photos on the ad better. Hmmm, the film wind knob sure is stiff. And the shutter curtain is very slow to close on 1/30. Other speeds seem somewhat OK, except for 1/500 which is actually slower than 1/250. Put my sacrificial roll of film in it. Got the film back. Hmmm, the shutter is capping. Ok, what the heck I'll sell it at a loss. I know the drill now.

In a desperate fit of insanity I emailed Yuri over at FEDKA. Explained the troubles I've had. He replies that the Fed's have the simplest and most reliable shutters of all the FSU cameras. Says I just have bad luck w/ the Fed 2's. Ok, I'll send him the Fed 2 that has pinholes in the shutter for a CLA & shutter replacement.

So now I sit here waiting on my other fleabay Fed 2 to arrive, as well as the overhauled camera from Yuri. When they arrive, I won't even run any film through them. I am selling them. At a loss of course. And I will Never, Ever buy another one of these tin cans again. No one consistently has this sort of bad luck, as Yuri suggested. It's that these things are junk. I'll just buy a Leica or even a clacking Bessa R variant (plastic feel, loud shutters, but they work).

Guess you've had some pretty lousy experiences. I bought a Kiev not too long ago from a US seller on Ebay for about $45. Slow speeds are a bit off but in other respects it's been a great buy--it almost works like new! Maybe try a Kiev if you want a bargain.
Good luck.

 

[Steve M.]

This thread seems to have gotten a bit if interest! A first for me, as I often wanted to change my forum name to "threadkiller", but someone already had that on some forum or another. Initially it was just to vent my frustration w/ these cameras, which I still feel are beautiful rangefinders w/ extremely unreliable shutters and a tendency to produce light leaks and ruin otherwise good photos. I wonder why that is? Maybe they're just too old now, but I am still fuzzy about why they seem to be so difficult to properly repair. I know that most people who repair Leicas won't work on them. Usually I will get tired of something like this and fix it myself, but the tiny parts in these cameras are not my forte.

If I had just bought a Bessa R to begin with (which I finally did) everything would have gone fine. The Bessa's annoyances like it's shutter noise and poorly located strap lugs are easy to endure when you consider it's reliability compared to the Fed cameras. Nice to have an in-camera meter too. Maybe the Kievs are more reliable, I have no experience w/ them. The much newer Bessa R variants are good cameras that have a great track record for reliability, but I still wish for a reliable classic RF camera that takes Leica lenses and doesn't cost a mint. I know full well that the camera is just a box for the lens, but I love shooting the old cameras. Just something about the experience that I like, which is one of the reasons I enjoy shooing my old MF folders so much. If a camera isn't enjoyable to shoot I won't bring it with me, so it's a moot point if it has a killer lens.

It''s very difficult to shoot LTM lenses unless you bite the bullet and just buy a Leica camera to begin with. That's my experience. I'm sure there's people who have bought FSU cameras that have worked perfectly from day one, but that doesn't help me as my money and time went the other way. I only have one 50 LTM lens and don't see getting any others, so it seems crazy to invest a lot of money in a body for it. The Canon RF cameras like the P and 7 seem like good alternatives at good prices. The only one I owned was a Canon 7 that was well built but I had trouble seeing the RF spot in it. It may have needed cleaning, or they just aren't as good as the M cameras in that department. Then there's the Barnack cameras. Cute as they can be, and I don't mind the split rf and viewfinder windows, but I've had reliability troubles w/ these too. Again, these cameras are very old now and not the best candidates for a daily shooter. Maybe that's the real issue. All of these rf cameras except for the Bessas are ancient in camera years. Some are just plain ancient. It's a marvel that the lenses are still so good after so much time.

 

[BillBingham2]

....A first for me, as I often wanted to change my forum name to "threadkiller", but someone already had that on some forum or another.....

Dude, that's my nickname and I've trademarked and servicemarked it! Hands off.

....... Initially it was just to vent my frustration w/ these cameras, which I still feel are beautiful rangefinders.....

Been there tried pointing that out to folks but many seem to feel that if you say anything bad about their favorite children you are damning the world and as the Knights Temp. they must protect the truth.

....... Maybe the Kievs are more reliable.....

I'm not sure they are more reliable but I believe for the most part they are closer to what they copied (Contax) and as such many Contax repair people will work on them. On even said that once he gets done with one it.

....... bought a Bessa R to begin with (which I finally did).....

Do not worry about offending folks by purchasing one. I was lucky enough at one point in time to own several of both. All the Bessas are wonderful cameras that work. Like all cameras some have problem from time to time, but then so do we.

My agent will be calling your people about trying to take the "ThreadKiller" title from me. Just as an FYI, there is no truth to the rumor that this will be the title for the next James Bond classic!

B2 (;->

 

[FallisPhoto]

If that were so easy, you wouldn't be using folders.

Elsewhere, when asked about what film you use for your 4x5' prints from 6x9 negatives, you mention Bluefire, which is available only in 35mm. Not to mention Ukrania or the RSFSR.

This is turning into a willy-waving exercise and as such is rather silly.

The films I use in my medium format cameras (120 and 127) are Efke and BlueFire. BlueFire is, or at least was, available in 127. I haven't bought any in a couple of years though.

As for the RSFSR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Soviet_Federative_Socialist_Republic It's the biggest remnant of the Soviet Union.

 

[FS Vontz]

I think you're an idiot for continuing to buy them after so many didn't work. I bought a Zorki 4k, it didn't work, and so I bought an Olympus RC that did.

 

[rxmd]

The films I use in my medium format cameras (120 and 127) are Efke and BlueFire. BlueFire is, or at least was, available in 127. I haven't bought any in a couple of years though.

BlueFire in 127 is a colour film. I think they cut it from 120 stock of Kodak Portra 160 and re-spool it. Somewhere you mentioned 6x9 negatives for making your huge prints, so that kinda rules out your 127 as well. So much for that.

As for the RSFSR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Soviet_Federative_Socialist_Republic It's the biggest remnant of the Soviet Union.

Well, and I guess I live in the GDR then.

It's OK, I think we better leave it at that.

 

[martinsmith99]

I have only had 1 FED and love the camera. It was off of evilbay and claimed to have had a CLA.

No complaints here. It's not a Leica and I knew that before I bought it.

 

[rxmd]

As noted, the RSFSR is indeed the actual name of a nation wrongly called (by "smart" folks like you, apparently) "Russia".

Ehm, they renamed themselves in December 1991. There wasn't really much reason to call themselves socialist or a Soviet republic anymore. It's been just the Russian Federation for close to twenty years now.

Apart from that, your complaint about "smart folks" is like saying France is what people wrongly call the country whose actual name is the French Republic. Is that kind of useless remark really necessary?

 

[julio1fer]

Well, I'm relieved to learn all this. I thought FSU meant "Future Soviet Union".

 

[rxmd]

Sorry, the "is" should have been "was". [...] And yes, it is necessary when (and only when) the person in question is calling other people stupid when they are themselves mistaken. 🙄

Well, good that we've got that cleared up. 😛

 

[gliderbee]

I just bought my first Zorki (Zorki 4) with the Jupiter-8 ; everything seems to work perfectly, even the slow times. It looks like new, and I'm going to try it out tomorrow.

Together with it, I was given another lens, that you can see mounted on the camera in the pictures; the inscriptions are quite faded, but I think it says "Industar"; max. aperture seems to be 3.5 (not very clear either). It's collapsible. I'm going to give it a try also, but what should I expect ? The Jupiter-8 has a good reputation (I think I remember reading about it), but I don't know anything about the other lens.

Stefan.

 

[wolves3012]

I just bought my first Zorki (Zorki 4) with the Jupiter-8 ; everything seems to work perfectly, even the slow times. It looks like new, and I'm going to try it out tomorrow.

Together with it, I was given another lens, that you can see mounted on the camera in the pictures; the inscriptions are quite faded, but I think it says "Industar"; max. aperture seems to be 3.5 (not very clear either). It's collapsible. I'm going to give it a try also, but what should I expect ? The Jupiter-8 has a good reputation (I think I remember reading about it), but I don't know anything about the other lens.

Stefan.

The lens is an Industar 50. Not terribly fast but quite a sharp lens in my experience. Most were found on Zorki 5 models, I believe. The rigid version is ugly but equally good and often found on Zorki 4/5/6 models.

 

[wolves3012]

We can, but I find the while I might be all gloom and doom awaits for purchasers, your perspective of sunshine and roses is equally skewed to the edges of the bell curve that is reality.

Again, I never made that claim. Most of mine needed some minor attention but that came as no surprise in view of their cost and age. I just said that most arrived working reasonably well. I have yet to find an Industar 26 or 61 that didn't need a re-lube, for instance. They still work, but focussing is not pleasant!

WRONG. I've had a few classes in college in statistics. Half of one of my masters classes was all statistics. Found out that on my list of hate stuff general accounting and installing duct work for HVAC systems is higher than stats. While I'm not a UofC MBA (very numbers oriented program) I can do OK and perhaps more importantly, I know who to go and ask for help when I need it.
B2 (;->

Sorry, I think my sense of humour went over your head. My fault. That was simply the counter-joke to yours.

 

[colyn]

Here's an image taken with one of those cheap junk Fed's with J-8 cheap junk lens.

 

[pakeha]

As noted, the RSFSR is indeed the actual name of a nation wrongly called (by "smart" folks like you, apparently) "Russia". And you also apparently don't know there's a connection between Yugoslavia and the USSR.

You might wanna dial the cocky meter down a notch.

It is called the Russian Federation.

Yes, that was the Warsaw Pact. Jugoslavia was never part of the FSU.

Guess thats a dial up

 

[40oz]

This post was unnecessary. Therefore I've removed it.

This is a dead horse. But I suppose people will always be stumbling upon dead horses. Frustration probably isn't the best way to deal with it.

 

[Dave Wilkinson]

Wow. I'm going to stop being kind. You have to be an idiot of the first order to think a $30 camera is going to work perfect. And still a greater idiot to think all cameras of the same make work (or don't) the same as your $30 ebay POS.

What the hell is wrong with people? You buy a 1960 M3 that has never seen a servece shop, nobody thinks it will work. Yet there is this idea that a Ukrainian model should work perfect no matter how many years go by or how much neglect has been suffered. What kind of stupid infects people?

So if you bought a camera body for cheap off ebay and it didn't work, consider this your notice that your opinion is officially not worth squat. Not that I think you'll listen, since you already lack common sense and basic logic skills. But please keep your hand off a keyboard when people are talking about FSU cameras, since your experience is obviously that of the mindless moron.

As I said, I stopped being kind. The idiocy that insists on being heard has made me consider harshness as an acceptable tactic. Stupid apparently recognizes no bounds.

Yes...you have stopped being kind ( not that anyone will be impressed! ) - but you have not stopped generalizing!, this "idiot of the first order" has several 30/40 yr. old $30(or near!) cameras that work perfectly, simply because over the years there have been long periods of infrequent use - Christmas, birthdays, vacation - in a year, and even with a few Leicas ( I've bought and sold 'em! ). As parts are not rotating and reciprocating constantly under pressure - very little wear will be evident - whether it's Russian, German, Japanese or Martian!. I've stated here before - that in over fifty years as an amatuer and semi-pro, I 've never sent a camera for a service ( or CLA - if you prefer! ) and only one ( OM2n ) has failed beyond my repair ability. So basically, yes! - if a seller tells me a thirty yearold camera is working fine, that's what I expect and want - even if it was made in FSU 🙂
Dave.