Is there a "best" FSU?

[David Hughes]

People want to believe that what they have in their camera bag is the "best" as if there is some magic line of demarcation that separates those cameras capable of good photographs from those that are not. And "best" is often measured by how much something costs, coupled with historical significance, and unfortunately how cute it looks hanging from your shoulder, but anyone with an ounce of experience knows that good pictures depend on light, composition and creativity, and not gear. Any camera can take good pictures. Parenthetically, this is what drives me nuts about the digital crowd with their 'pixel peeping.'

Sorry for the rant ... I used to be part of that 'country club' crowd. Still use a Leicaflex SL though. Great camera.

"Best" for me has really evolved into which camera is easy to use, because that has somewhat of a correlation on the quality of my pictures. And in this regard, some of the FSU stuff (e.g., Fed 2) rates high.

Hi,

I couldn't agree more. And often for me "best" turns out to be a P&S. Mostly because I can get the thing in my pocket and get more than adequate results from it. There's a lot of them out there with decent lenses and just enough over-rides that are easy to use to give the dearest and best a run for their money.

Regards, David

PS And talking of best; I've been looking at prices and we are talking tens of thousands for a body and a few lenses in the "excellent" class...

 

[Ko.Fe.]

FSU P&S are the best!

I liked 35 Minox, size factor, lens... But I'm one from many who wasn't able to get reliable one.
Mine required constant repairs, but they made it as failure prone even more. So, few days ago I put it on recycle and took out Smena-8m. It requires one extra step to select light symbol instead of auto exposure.
And if or then it will broke, I could get five of Smenas for the price of one Minox 35.
It isn't as small as Minox 35, but I'm ten times more confident with Smena 8M as every day to have with me camera comparing to this German and Japanese XA which quit after two years of use before Minox.

Cheers. Ko.

PS. My family friend returned from Kiev two days ago. With negatives box from eighties. Taken with his first camera. Smena! He took it everywhere and took pictures of almost everything.
Most of negs are bw and many of them never been printed and none were scanned.
Few months ago I printed from same eighties time Smena negatives my wife and mother-in-law took.