Just got my first rangefinder - a FED 5

pobe

pobe

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Jun 15, 2010
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Hi everyone!

I've been lurking here for a while, reading interesting discussions and looking at great pictures. For quite some time I've been thinking about getting into rangefinders, since I love street shooting. I can't quite afford a Leica at the moment, but today I found a FED 5 in great condition - it looks as if it hasn't been used at all! Everything seems to be working fine and I'm going to try it with a roll of Tri-X tomorrow... :D
 
Enjoy! The Fed 5 is a bit of a brute but it's a solid camera that will do what a light tight box is supposed to do. Did it come with the Industar 61L/D lens?
 
I shot a roll of Tri-X yesterday, mostly guesstimating exposure and it came out pretty nice! The shutter doesn't seem to work properly at 1/500, I got an overexposed edge on some of the pictures. Of course I was stupid and didn't take any notes on aperture and shutter speed... But if I remember correctly all that got the "bright edge" were at 1/500.

The FED 5 isn't exactly small, but I really love shooting with a rangefinder. I think I'll try to get my hands on something a bit more compact next...

Here's a quick scan (low res, auto levels):

 
Probably a little dirt in the mechanism. If you're mechanically inclinded there are lots of instructions on the net (google is your friend). If not, they really aren't worth investing a professional cleanup on.

My favorite FSU LTM rangefinder was the Zorki 6, when you get that far :) Just keep the 5 & especially the I-61 lens as it's a great lens.

BTW the Jupiter 12 35/2.8 is a wonderful lens for these cameras as well. Cheap wide angle that can give great results.

Have fun!

William
 
While quite ugly and large its very capable. Actually mine has a very contrasty viewfinder (which is very small) and works well.
The meter is in Ghost instead of DIN or ASA but they are only different by ten percent (approx.).
 
It is a bit large for my taste actually, but I really like using a rangefinder camera compared to my SLRs. Sure, the SLR has advantages in some areas, but I almost exclusive use primes in the wide-normal range so RF seems to be the way to go, especially since I've been getting more and more into film...

I was actually surprised with how much I liked a sharp viewfinder (as opposed to the quite shallow DOF you get in an SLR) and the fact that there is no mirror blackout when taking a picture. I always thought that was just talk, but I really enjoyed it!

I think I'll keep my eyes open for something smaller, right now my Pentax MX beats the FED for compactness... :)
 
pobe said:
I think I'll keep my eyes open for something smaller, right now my Pentax MX beats the FED for compactness... :)
Click to expand...
If you want smaller, try the FED or Zorki 1, they're about as small as you can get and smaller than an MX. I'd suggest a late Zorki 1 as being the best user.
 
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