Anybody use a russian made leica copy...aka fed or zorki?

wondering how good the optics and the cam itself are of the fed 1d if anybody knows...

-- grant (g4lamos@yahoo.com), November 11, 2001

Answers

Did you have the opportunity to go into the 775 photos of the FOM2 (Family of Man 2) collection a few posts further down this site?

There a some photos taken with Jupiter lenses. Maybe IŽam prejudiced, but I bet you can see it... There are pinsharp photos with Summiluxes of 35 and 75/ 80 mm focal length, terrific results with a MINILUX Zoom camera i.e. from India, beautiful shots with Apo-Macro Elmarits; you can really tell the lenses.

Have a look and decide for yourself.

Best wishes and good shooting

-- K. G. Wolf (k.g.wolf@web.de), November 11, 2001.

Are these the famous "Bala" Leicas?

-- Ray Moth (ray_moth@yahoo.com), November 11, 2001.

LOL, Ray :-D

Very good indeed, Grant, but I'm not a user. My uncle had one, and it worked very well for him; seemingly as smooth and nice as my Dad's Contax IIa.

-- Mani Sitaraman (bindumani@pacific.net.sg), November 11, 2001.

I bought one of the later Feds (5C or some such). It was terrible. Film transport often failed, most of the parts were stamped steel, all of the edges were very sharp (the knurled bits were painful to operate), and the eyepiece scratched my eyeglasses. The lens looked nice, though I never got any images out of it. It was a very crude camera. It could have been a bad sample, but judging from the preponderance of stamped steel parts in the "drivetrain", I doubt it. My guess is that the closer the manufacture date of the camera is to the "appropriation" date of the factory, the better (in other words, older is better). Fortunately, I didn't pay much and got back what I did pay.

-- Ron Buchanan (ronb@fusive.com), November 12, 2001.

FED 3 I have works really well and of course, I use it only with screw mount Leica lens... Of course, I hope to find some good Canon and Nikkor ones too but so far the Industra lens I have been using works very well.

Of course, I modified my FED quite a bit too. It was well worth the 30 ducks I paid for it plus it's a lot more durable than the plastic Bessa stuff :)

Alfie

-- Alfie Wang (albert.wang@ibx.com), November 12, 2001.

I returned a FED 3 as its light seals were defective, but otherwise it was a great tool. ĄYes! The viewfinder was a joke, but the rangefinder was dead on, there were no holes in the shutter curtain, film transport, setting the shutter speeds, etc., were smooth, film loading was easy (OK, I'm Contaflex-trained), and it's built like an M1A1. Obivously, quality control in 1955 was pretty tight. Well, the earliest Avtomat Kalashnikov are said to be of excellent quality, too.

Alfie, how did you modify your FED 3? If I ever come across one again, I'll get it and keep it.

-- Oliver Schrinner (piraya@hispavista.com), November 13, 2001.

"It was well worth the 30 ducks I paid for it...."

Jeez, Alfie...bartering waterfowl for cameras? Was this out in one of the former Soviet republics? Or were you just visiting the factory manager's country dacha?

Do Muscovy ducks bring a premium when trading for Russian cameras?

-- Andy Piper (apidens@denver.infi.net), November 13, 2001.

I modified my FED 3 by doing some clean-up work and added some cool bumper sticker cutouts onto the FED 3 for decoration so that no one would take me seriously. I just picked up the Hektor 135mm lens and it will be used to shoot that faroff film. Of course, I don't have a viewfinder framelines built in but you take chances using the FED 3...

No light leaks so far so things are fine so far. I am getting a Leica IIIf to add to the collection to boot. So basically to kid around, I just own a well-decorated (literally) FED-3. :)

Alfie

-- albert Wang (albert.wang@ibx.com), November 14, 2001.

I modified my FED 3 by doing some clean-up work and added some cool bumper sticker cutouts onto the FED 3 for decoration so that no one would take me seriously. I just picked up the Hektor 135mm lens and it will be used to shoot that faroff film. Of course, I don't have a viewfinder framelines built in but you take chances using the FED 3...

No light leaks so far so things are fine so far. I am getting a Leica IIIf to add to the collection to boot. So basically to kid around, I just own a well-decorated (literally) FED-3. :) Alfie

-- Albert Wang (albert.wang@ibx.com), November 14, 2001.

in general with all fmr USSR stuff, the lenses are better than the bodies. i have a 35mm f2.8 PC in nikon mt. which looks like a HOYA copy, it's excellent. their imitation hasselblad lenses are great, sadly, will only work on their bodies, though the backs are interchangable. even a newer 58mm f2 in pentax screw mount did OK, i picked it up for fun. if you use mostly a 50mmm and a 90mm on your leica, their jupiter 35mm is a really cheap wide-angle, though voightlander has filled that niche. the FED bodies are all pretty useless for anything other than decoration and to shoot one roll through once a year. that being said, if for some reason you are ever stuck without a camera far from home, and absolutely must get something, $50 or $100 on a FED or a ZENIT will get you through the crisis until you get back to base

-- alan chin (rat101@aol.com), November 14, 2001.