Minor observation about Fed factory

[ruben]

Today I got from Alex-photo a "Soviet mini tripod", of the like Yashica produced at its turn. But upon looking at it I discovered the inscription "Fed" on the bottom.

I think there also exists a "Fed" self timer, very expensive BTW, and if my memory doesn't fail I have seen some "Fed" exposure meter.

Can the inference be made Fed factory, in contrast to Kiev and Zorki, manufactured a large series of accessories under its brand name ?

Cheers,
Ruben

[Michael I.]

zorki were made by KMZ which made a lot of stuff like viewfinders, tripod belt\neck harness(looks like BDSM stuff), viewing scopes to convert lenses to be used as spotting scopes, photo snipers,filters,hoods,flashes etc.

Kievs were made by Arsenal which might have manufactured accessories but I am not sure.

[Jocko]

Today I got from Alex-photo a "Soviet mini tripod", of the like Yashica produced at its turn. But upon looking at it I discovered the inscription "Fed" on the bottom.

I think there also exists a "Fed" self timer, very expensive BTW, and if my memory doesn't fail I have seen some "Fed" exposure meter.

Can the inference be made Fed factory, in contrast to Kiev and Zorki, manufactured a large series of accessories under its brand name ?

Cheers,
Ruben

Yes Ruben, you are right - but this was not always the case. A majority of the FED products - the exposure meter, self-timer, frame-finders and so on, were produced early on - in the late 30s - when the factory was the only serious supplier of high quality 35mm cameras in the USSR. It was essentially mirroring Leica's accessory line.

There were doubtless some simple accessories produced later on, but nothing like the original range.

Incidentally, It should always be remembered that KMZ was an enormous organisation with numerous satellite factories, who were actually responsible for most accessory production. FED's photographic wing was a far more modest concern.

Cheers, Ian

[Pherdinand]

Are you observing the FED factory?