Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1992/06/29
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I apologise to anyone who has seen this posted to PHOTO-L and rec.photo. I just got this address again (thanks, Andy!) so here it goes here. Among experts! Does anyone know the Pont & Princelle book (I am spelling their names from memory, so forgive errors) that Harry Zucker reviewed in Shutterbug last year? It is a (tres expensive) compendium of Leica lookalikes. It sounded from the Zucker article like a handy thing to have around. -Philip Hiscock philiph@kean.ucs.mun.ca ===================================================== Mon 29 June 1992 I have just bought a Leica copy and it may be helpful to other collectors to give my impressions of it. As well, I have a few questions for those who know more about it than I do. In some ways it is similar to the Zenit E, so I'll compare with that camera. The camera is a FED 5 with an Industar 61P/D lens (f/2.8, 55 mm). All markings are of course in Cyrillic. The markings do not correspond exactly to what I'd expect from reading Hove and McKeowan's listings. For example, the serial number does not seem to incorporate the date of manufacture (this is unlike my old Zenit E, whose number _does_). The s.n., by the way, is 046141 and is stamped on the bottom/back of the camera. (As with (early?) Leicas, to open this camera you remove completely the bottom and back, which slide downward.) Another difference is that this camera seems to indicate it was made in or by what I am tempted to transliterate as "Stephano" but which actually is "Sdepanov". This is not mentioned in Hove. (An approximation of the Cyrillic letters would be "C#E^AHO B" where # is a delta - sorta - and ^ is the letter (pi) which looks like an upside-down capital V with a wooden leg: make any sense? To say that my Russian is rudimentary is an extreme understatement.) It is, being a Leica alike, a rangefinder camera, with a simple coupling involving a lever between the rf mirror and the lens' inner extension. It also has a focusable viewfinder - very interesting and somewhat puzzling; it appears to be settable for your own vision without your glasses. Quite handy: as blind as I am without my glasses, I should be able to use it. It is very solid, but not as heavy as some other Russian cameras. I really don't know how old this camera is. My reading of the 1992 Hove guide suggests early 1980s, and I do expect it is less than twenty years old, but it looks like early 70s. In any case, its former user gave it a good going - there are scratches, and ingrained dirt, and - gasp gasp - _oil_. At some point, someone went through it with a can of oil, which I have been mopping up with Q-Tips. It is also missing its self-timer lever - it seems to have been broken off after jamming; I tried to install the lever off my 1975 Zenit E and neither could get it to work nor reinstall it on the Zenit. Sigh. But after a couple of hours of playing with the FED's shutter, loosening it up a bit by use, I think it gives good service in the fast range (1/30 to 1/500). It has a B setting which works well, and some slow speeds which are timed - nominally 1/15 through 1 second. Unfortunately they are actually running at about 1/2 through 5 seconds. I'll just avoid those speeds for the time being. It took a little comparison with the Zenit before I figured out how to rewind the film I put in. Unlike most (western?) cameras, there is no lock release on the bottom of the camera; instead it is on the top, disguised as part of the shutter release button. The meter, a selenium cell about 1.5 cm across, works quite well. I tested it to within a half stop. Mind you it ain't no spot meter - it merely reads the light instensity over some angle, probably approximately that of the lens, in front of the camera. It is completely uncoupled. If you thought Zenit E meters were uncoupled, think again: the Zenit meter is at least coupled to the exposure calculator on the top left side of the camera. With the FED 5 you note where on a stop scale of 1 - 11 (zone fashion) the meter reads. Then you manually transfer that number to the calculator and, after setting your film speed, read off your exposure choices. The calculator has speeds (GOST = ISO/ASA) from 16 to 250, but you can easily extrapolate to 400, perhaps further. You can set shutter speeds only after cocking the shutter; this, too, is somewhat more primitive than the Zenit E. There is one serious problem with my FED: the coupled rangefinder appears not to match the focussing ring distances. I noticed this when I used the rf to "focus" on a distant object, one I knew was near infinity. When I looked at the distance marking on the focussing ring, it was only 10 metres! This is what I tested when I shot a roll of HP5+. I did a series of distant shots, in pairs of focussed with the rangefinder and focussed at infinity; what I learn from the negatives will determine how I use the camera... For those with more knowledge of the FED 5, I would like to ask a few questions. Can the rangefinder be recalibrated? How? Can the timer lever be repaired/replaced? What - generally - are Industar lenses like? In the user's booklet that came fifteen years ago with my Zenit, it appeared that Industar was a poorer product than the Helios which came with the Zenit. Have I got a poorer-quality lens on my poor-quality Leica-alike? :) There is a frame counter on the top of the camera, above the take up spool, and in the centre of the counter is a spinning plate with three symbols: a sun, a bulb, and a circle with a dot in it. What is the function of this plate? It does not seem to be connected to anything - is it somehow a memo of the film you have aboard? I have not figured out how to make a flash fire from this camera. There is a shoe which appears to be a "hot" shoe in that it has a central contact. There is also a pc cord attachment. But I cannot get either to fire my flash. Is there a trick here, or is the flash contact one of the things, like the timer lever, that just give up their ghosts never to be resuscitated? Are FEDs still being made? Finally, several months ago a Leica-users' email group was formed. There was mail for several weeks but then it disappeared and I have lost the address. Does anyone know it? -Philip Hiscock philiph@kean.ucs.mun.ca