Just got my first rangefinder - a FED 5

[pobe]

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... 😀

 

[wlewisiii]

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?

 

[pobe]

Yep, it came with the Industar 61L/D. I have heard it's quite a nice lens...

 

[KayJay]

I like my Fed 5 too. The finder is a little dark, the lightmeter is more a "Schätz-o-meter" but he works🙂

 

[ramosa]

welcome to the RF club. it'll change you--and could become addictive 😉

 

[pobe]

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):

 

[wlewisiii]

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

 

[ully]

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.).

 

[pobe]

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... 🙂

 

[wolves3012]

I think I'll keep my eyes open for something smaller, right now my Pentax MX beats the FED for compactness... 🙂

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.

 

[xxloverxx]

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.

Or a Zorki C — for a slight size increase, you get flash sync.