Quality level over the years

[Dez]

It has been pretty well established that for the Kiev cameras, build quality was originally very high, and gradually declined over the 25 years or so that they were made to the point that many of the last ones were shoddy indeed. Is that the case for other long-running FSU cameras? I have a late (1968) FED 2, which is perfect working condition, everything smooth and solid.



Is that unusual? Would the earliest ones from the mid 50's be generally better made, or would any trend of that sort be overwhelmed by the unit-to-unit variation we all know and love in FSU cameras? I have to say that of the few FED 2s I have owned over the years, all of them seemed to be quite good.

Cheers,
Dez

 

[goamules]

Depends on the factory, remember there were several that made FED products anyway. I find the Pre-war NKVD Fed 1s to have excellent quality. Probably because the student/workers at the commune factory were thrilled to be learning a high-tech skill making a copy of the most advanced camera in the world! So they put a lot of effort into it that 1970s workers did not. The early ones really aren't bad at all, and when I compare my 1930s Feds to 1950s ones, I see a big difference.

 

[wolves3012]

It's a little difficult to be objective when the newest cameras available are some 20 years old. Add on to that the fact that they were sold cheaply and so have (mostly) no great value and therefore no real incentive to have a professional service. Really, all you can do is make some sweeping generalisations. Most of the old models are better made and more solidly built. Cost-cutting and poor manufacturing are less evident on older ones. Interestingly, of the ones in my collection, the very oldest have not been the only ones to require new curtains. Later FEDs have poor quality curtains that do not last. This isn't true for Zorkis, it seems. Of course, my sample-size is low so that's not objective either!

 

[Ron (Netherlands)]

I had many FSU in my hands, guess most of them were the famous Zorki 4. I can indeed say that the ones built in the fifties were machined a little better; after servicing - compared to the ones built in the later years - they always were a smoother in winding - more comparable to the Leica. Same goes for the early Zorki 3C and Zorki 3, they also feel smoother than the later Z4 and Z4K.
With the FED2 I can't remember that earlier ones felt better....
Further with the older FED 1 models and Zorki 1 models it is hard to say. A lot of them were used quite extensively and I had some in my hands were the springs in the rollers were not the best anymore.