I might have found a FSU repairman

[rxmd]

I might have found a good FSU repairman here in Kyrgyzstan - not the center of the world, but then someone like Oleg in Yoshkar-Ola isn't at the center of the world either.

Anyway, his name is Aleksander Samuilovich, he's about sixty years old and enjoys an excellent reputation among local photographers here - as lore has it, during the Soviet period people came from the neighbouring republics to have cameras fixed. My first impressions chatting were rather good; there aren't that many repairmen around with an opinion on the weak points of the chain drive mechanism of the Drug camera or the differences between versions of various lenses.

I've currently left him a Leningrad for a CLA, rangefinder adjustment and minor repairs, and a 85/f1.5 Helios-40 for fixing a broken aperture. As a second package I've brought a FED-S that needs fixing light leaks and a set of 50/f2 and 28/f4.5 FED lenses for CLAs and some restoration, let's see how it goes 🙂

 

[johannielscom]

🙂

That 50/2.0 was cleaned by a repairman of Yuri at Fedka, shouldn't be necessary🙂

Or is this another 50/2.0?

I've never spotted light leaks with my Fed-Sbut I used it in its case...

Had the lens match the body at Fedka as well.

I hope you are enjoying the set!?

 

[rxmd]

That 50/2.0 was cleaned by a repairman of Yuri at Fedka, shouldn't be necessary🙂

Or is this another 50/2.0?

I've never spotted light leaks with my Fed-Sbut I used it in its case...

Had the lens match the body at Fedka as well.

I hope you are enjoying the set!?

I'm greatly enjoying the set, thank you! 🙂

Yuri's repairman did a good job on the glass, only the aperture is a bit stiff and focus seems to be off a little bit, but that might be a misalignment of the camera - no way to check without a reference lens, and difficult to get one for the nonstandard thread 😀

 

[rxmd]

So yesterday I picked up the Leningrad and 85/f1.5. Impeccable work on both. It turns out that the Leningrad had a broken shaft in the viewfinder, and the transfer plate for the shutter button action had a crack. So he replaced the entire view-/rangefinder assembly and ground a new transfer plate from scratch. I'm happy, and all for less than $20.

Left him a FED-S with a light leak and a 28/f4.5 for cleaning (comment on the lens: "It's been a while since I've seen one of those!"). The light leak will take some time tracking down, it's on the lower part of the body, but the body shell itself looks tight. Might be light creeping around the shutter, or a small pinhole in the shutter near the lower end.

Spent an hour or two chatting in the workshop looking at some of the other cameras for repair. A Chinese collector had just left him a mint-looking pre-war FED in the 60.000 serial number range that he'd bought in Moscow and brought all the way to Kyrgyzstan for an interior overhaul. A few Leningrads, a Kiev 5 ("Never buy a Kiev-5, the wind mechanism breaks all the time, no wonder they discontinued it"), two Zenit-4 and Zenit-6 leaf shutter SLRs ("This is probably the most finicky Soviet camera of all"), one of them with a Rubin-1 37-80/f2.8 zoom lens, and a Kiev-10 rotary-shutter SLR. All in all a nice place.

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Spent an hour or two chatting in the workshop looking at some of the other cameras for repair. All in all a nice place.

oh and you didn't take a picture there....would love to have a look at the place....