Loading the FED 1 - why do we do this to ourselves?

[rxmd]

They should find a really difficult way for digital cameras to insert the memory card and to turn the machine on, that would be so much better :-D

Why not a DIY solution to this problem? You're free to stuff foam in the card slot of your digicam, store the memory cards themselves in a tin can that you previously closed with solder on your workbench at home, and stick chewing gum on the "on" switch.

Philipp

 

[ZorkiKat]

Inks

Inks

For me, it's a bit like with chinese calligraphy: you can buy ink, or you can do it like "it's supposed to be done": make your own ink by rubbing an ink blok in water. When I take some time to cut the film leader and put in the film, it gets me "in the zone" ready to shoot. The first time, I also thought it was a hassle, but I got used to it really quickly.

They should find a really difficult way for digital cameras to insert the memory card and to turn the machine on, that would be so much better :-D


Peter.

Peter,

Slightly OT: I know exactly what you mean. Prepared ink is easy to use and quite convenient. But it doesn't quite give the qualities (especially when brush strokes are concerned where not only hand pressure on the brush counts, but on how the ink flows through the bristles as well) of the more viscous ink from an inkstick ground on an inkstone with water. Qualities not always or readily seen, but which certainly make the difference between a "great stroke", and "just another stroke". Just like the differences between Soviet and German and Japanese optics, or for that matter, SLRs and RFs.

Jay

 

[dee]

... or artist watercolour and budget ... go with the flow ...

 

[USSRPhoto]

Jay, I don't always have the opportunity to trim the leads in advance, so I found the "finger in the lens barrel" most convinent way for me..

 

[kiev4a]

Find a thin but fairly rigid piece of plastic--slide it down into the film channel between the film rails and the pressure plate, Hook a 35mm roll with a standard leader to your take-up spool, then slip the film down between the plastic car and pressure plate, then remove the card.

When I first heard of the method I argued that it could damage the camera. But I have one FED 1 that can only be loaded by that method and it produces the sharpest photos of any of my FED 1s or Zorki 1s.