Ohh..I love those rare cameras

konicaman

konicaman

konicaman
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Take a look - isn't it amazing?
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Camera-FED-5B...otography_Film_Cameras_ET?hash=item518e3800d0

30 year anniversary of Moscow Olympics. Hmm...good planning. Only 30 made - this guys has 3 for sale - all with the serial no. 005.

An hey...they are made in the USSR. Has there been a second revolution? The reds have come back - gosh I am getting nervous...is the world revolution at hand???

Gotta have a couple of those - must really be a good investment 😀
 
You obviously missed something, this is what makes it rare: "All features have been tested by professional repairman and work properly."

And where is it written that a craftsman cannot inscribe pieces honoring an event? It's not fake if nobody claims it came from the factory that way. It's not garish and it's rather nice looking, IMHO.

I've bought from moscowphoto before. I was unhappy with the transaction as I was sent something other than what I bought. The quality of the item I received was not in question, however. The issue was that the seller apologized, asked me to return it, then claimed he never got it back. My money was refunded, however. And the seller had relisted the same ad for the lens which I originally thought I was buying.

When shipping times take months, it's kind of an issue when the seller sends you the wrong item, even if it is a very nice example of something you didn't buy.
 
Capital of USSR were called Moscow in English (below in text seller also uses word Moscow). Why on Earth they wrote MOSKOW (there is Russian surname transliterated Moskow, though).

"Camera in new condition", that doesn't mean it's new (note, condition in listing is not marked "new").

So I think that some nice guys have made a small batch of 30 FED's (or will make if there will be demand) - not a bad thing itself, and they don't pretend camera is factory-made.

This days exporting oil and gas makes better income to Russia than reintroduce already plentiful FED's 🙂
 
Oh yes, it is quite pretty, at half the price I might have bought one just for the fun of it. Sorry to hear about the weird transaction 40oz...
 
There have been some 're-discovered' Fed cameras that have miraculously shown up on eBay in the past couple years ... ones that I found interesting were Fed 2's with special paint and engraving that commemorated things like the Anniversary of the Communist Party, or special Soviet space flights, etc.

In my (uneducated) opinion, I think these are all just regular vanilla Fed cameras that have been doctored to appear like rare commemorative editions.

I ended up buying a Fed 2 with red and black paint and a special 'Vokshod' engraving, commemorating the time when the Soviet space program sent space probes to the moon.

This 'special' Fed 2 looks really impressive, but mechanically and optically it was quite inferior to the other Fed 2 that I bought online ... my 'normal' Fed 2 is a real gem of a camera that actually takes nice photos.

I think these special edition FSU cameras are good for a fun collectible, but they're not to be taken seriously.
 
bobby_novatron said:
There have been some 're-discovered' Fed cameras that have miraculously shown up on eBay in the past couple years ... ones that I found interesting were Fed 2's with special paint and engraving that commemorated things like the Anniversary of the Communist Party, or special Soviet space flights, etc.

In my (uneducated) opinion, I think these are all just regular vanilla Fed cameras that have been doctored to appear like rare commemorative editions.

I ended up buying a Fed 2 with red and black paint and a special 'Vokshod' engraving, commemorating the time when the Soviet space program sent space probes to the moon.

This 'special' Fed 2 looks really impressive, but mechanically and optically it was quite inferior to the other Fed 2 that I bought online ... my 'normal' Fed 2 is a real gem of a camera that actually takes nice photos.

I think these special edition FSU cameras are good for a fun collectible, but they're not to be taken seriously.
Click to expand...

The reason I would avoid 'special addition' cameras is that they have almost certainly been partially disassembled in order to be painted with the risk that the original shims may not have been put back properly.
 
fanshaw said:
The reason I would avoid 'special addition' cameras is that they have almost certainly been partially disassembled in order to be painted with the risk that the original shims may not have been put back properly.
Click to expand...

That is, of course, making the assumption that the shims were ever put in place correctly in the first place!😉

I have tended to find the quality control in FSU cameras to be consistently inconsistent.

Cheers,
Dez
 
Dez said:
That is, of course, making the assumption that the shims were ever put in place correctly in the first place!😉

I have tended to find the quality control in FSU cameras to be consistently inconsistent.

Cheers,
Dez
Click to expand...
Maybe, but how do you know? It is not often that anyone gets a camera that is in factory condition after 50 years. I haven't had any significant quality issues with the later models, which might be due to better quality control or less time for users to unscrew them.
 
And forums are to blame as well; how often do people say "don't bother it's not worth it"? Do that a few times and people will think there's some thing wrong with the cameras and blame the makers and not the users.

FWIW, the condition of most 50 or 60 year old cameras has a lot to do with their owners. I've Leicas that were not worth repairing and FED and Zorki 1's from the late 40's early 50's that had had one or two owners and are a credit to the factory.

But put any camera away, in its leather case, and forget it for 20 or 30 years and it will be a mess, even a Leica or Contax.

Regards, David
 
fanshaw said:
Maybe, but how do you know? It is not often that anyone gets a camera that is in factory condition after 50 years. I haven't had any significant quality issues with the later models, which might be due to better quality control or less time for users to unscrew them.
Click to expand...

You make a good point here about opportunities for people to damage cameras through poor repair work. At the same time, I have to agree with the popular opinion that the quality of FSU cameras mostly went steadily downwards from the beginning of the war until the 70's, so maybe the bodge factor is not a major influence. By far the best FSU cameras I have ever seen are the just-postwar Kievs, whether they still have German parts in them or not.

Kiev1949-1.jpg



Kiev2.jpg


The chrome especially is superb in the early Kievs; in my opinion it is much better than that of the original Contaxes. The quality of Kievs has clearly gone steadily downwards since then.

For the FEDs, I still haven't seen one to match the quality of my old wartime FED-C.

FEDS.jpg



I don't understand what the changes in the Soviet camera industry were that caused this decline, and would greatly appreciate some insight form anyone who has some expertise in this area. It would make sense for newer ones to be better, given improved technology and as you point out, less time for people to damage them, but that honestly has not been my experience.

Cheers,
Dez
 
Dez said:
You make a good point here about opportunities for people to damage cameras through poor repair work. At the same time, I have to agree with the popular opinion that the quality of FSU cameras mostly went steadily downwards from the beginning of the war until the 70's, so maybe the bodge factor is not a major influence. By far the best FSU cameras I have ever seen are the just-postwar Kievs, whether they still have German parts in them or not.

Kiev1949-1.jpg



Kiev2.jpg


The chrome especially is superb in the early Kievs; in my opinion it is much better than that of the original Contaxes. The quality of Kievs has clearly gone steadily downwards since then.

For the FEDs, I still haven't seen one to match the quality of my old wartime FED-C.

FEDS.jpg



I don't understand what the changes in the Soviet camera industry were that caused this decline, and would greatly appreciate some insight form anyone who has some expertise in this area. It would make sense for newer ones to be better, given improved technology and as you point out, less time for people to damage them, but that honestly has not been my experience.

Cheers,
Dez
Click to expand...
I agree with you about the early Kievs. I have a Kiev-2 and 3 and they are better finished than most of the Kiev-4 cameras that I have. You are possibly right about the quality of other early cameras. That is not the same as quality control. For instance the construction and finish of the later Feds, such as the Fed-5 is not very good in a number of respects. However the quality control is good. The cameras produce sharp pictures and don't seem to be less reliable than other cameras of the same age.
 
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