FED Cameras

Blink kills · 09-07-2005

Can anyone explain little about FED cameras.
Are they still manufacturing cameras today?
I have seen FED cameras on e-bay. Is that a place to buy if I want one? They seems to be sheap, or are they only fakes (fake of fake?)
The memebers here where have you bought it? And how much is "normal" price for FED 3.
Can anyone explain about the different between the models (FED3 FED4 FED5)?

Thanks in advance

captainslack · 09-07-2005

The best place to answer most of your questions is Jim Blasik's wonderful site:

http://www.geocities.com/fzorkis/

He goes into wonderful detail about the history of the company and each model RF that was produced. Also, his repaints are to die for!

No, FED doesn't produce cameras anymore. The company is still in existance last I heard, but they produce microscope optics, I believe.

Ebay would be the best place to buy, unless you can find someone here who has one to sell. I'd recommed the seller alex-photo. He's very honest and ships very fast. His delivery times from Ukraine to US average 9-14 days.

brians · 09-07-2005

Hello Blink kills,

FEDs are mostly all Leica Thread Mount Soviet rangefinders which many people consider workhorses. There are several variations, and it's named after the initials of Iron Felix or Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, founder of the bolshevik secret police, and has a long history of production.

Here are some pages via Matt Denton's site:
FED-2 <--- for FED 2
FED-3B <-- FED 3B
FED 5 <-- FED 5

and here are a few more sites that I find very helpful:
FED history / info @ commiecameras
and
Exhaustive Russian RF info @ fotoua

I actually own three of them: a FED 2, 4, 5B.

And they're all wonderful shooters (but I might need some repairs on the 4. Seems there's a piece of cloth stuck in the focal plane shutters.)

RichardS · 09-07-2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blink kills

Can anyone explain little about FED cameras.

Thanks in advance

eBay is the cheapest place to buy them. Cameta Camera at http://www.cameta.com occasionally has some.

fedka at http://www.fedka.com/catalog/ also sells them.

If you want to check out all the various FED models go to http://www.russianplaza.com/FED-1-2-3-4-5-C-page2.html Click on back at the bottom of the page to get to the early models.

Dick

Blink kills · 09-08-2005

Thanks for the information all!

Now I am going to bid...

captainslack · 09-08-2005

Good luck! Let us know what you come up with!