newbie mistakes, big consequence??

[eddyz]

i got my hand on a FED-2 yesterday and was very happy to play around with. However, I forgot to whine the counter before turning the shutter dial for around 4-5 times during my first roll of fim.. did i do any big damages to it?

Also, is it normal for the curtain to be pushed in a bit on the right side? The curtain (unpressed shutter) is not 100% flush with the frame, but it runs smooth so is this normal?

And lastly, i noticed some brown rust on the top casing, what is a good method of removing this and the old smell from the camera?

Thanks! i hope i can learn more from this forum and camera in the coming days.

 

[payasam]

Eddyz, perhaps you should leave the worrying until you've seen the results of the first roll.

 

[chris74]

thats some good advice, I was recently given a zorki 4 in a right mess, I cleaned it up as best as I could and put some film through it expecting all kinds of disasters but I was pleasantly surprised, the old zorki did a fine job.

Give your Fed a whirl, you never know it may well be fine, good luck!🙂

 

[ZorkiKat]

Its OK, not to worry.

Its OK, not to worry.

No worry about damaging the FED-2 by doing that. Depending on the version you have, some FED-2 actually allow speed changing regardless whether the shutter is cocked or not. The later ones, with "double dials" (where the index line and dot are both on the dials) were designed to allow shutter speed changing even without cocking.

With the earlier models, the worst you can do is set the speed to a different value than what you intended. The index line is in the top plate so when setting a value against it with the shutter uncocked, cocking the shutter will turn the dial and reveal the actual speed that the shutter's been set to.

Take care only NOT to shift from B to 500 or 500 to B since some models have a limiting bar on the speed disc which prevents this.

Its the models with slow speeds - Zorki-3 and -4; FED-3. -4, and -5 which can be damaged by shifting first without cocking. The setting pin of the speed selector can mesh with the wrong slot if the shutter dial is turned without cocking the shutter first. My Zorki-4 was recently damaged by someone who was fondling it and was unaware of the cock-before-changing rule.