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Hello,
I have recently completed my collection of Fed 3s. It's a camera I love; don't ask why... It is well known and common. But it seems there are (very!) tiny details not known until now.
So, if you are interested...

The first of my Fed 3 is the 1000245, so the 245th.
All the very early Fed 3 have in common one logo only on the front, the special cornered top plate mouldings and the rim around the finder. This one has too:
- an ocular with radial stripes,
- very fine engravings on the speed dial, perhaps made by hand.
Please, have a look at the photos.

note :
a "no-name" factory design Lubitel (black front paint whith original rivets) may be to be silk screen rebadged in export or just for International exibition ? (never used)
and an original Kristall whithout usual hammered grey enamel.Seem to be factory made like this : soft matt aluminium (whithout any scratches or cracks)...I can confirm never painted.
serial number : 61018045

Hello,

For the moment, I only have two photos of this LZOS Industar 50.Here they are:




Of course the serial number is odd.
But the body too which is a M39 (coupled or not, that's not clear).
I should receive it in two or three weeks. But if that remembers something to one of you...

Amitiés. Jacques.

Hello,

I think this might be of interest to you all too, so I have put all my repair instructions, which were scattered all over my website, together on one page.
All pages are still in German, but I will translate them into English in the future.

If you are interested you can have a look: http://ritzelkiste.de/kameras/repair/index.htm

Have fun
Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de

Hello everyone!
The export version of the Industar-61 lens with a distance scale in feet is very rare.
I know of only a few examples:
I-61 #6591212 (1965)
I-61 #8519490 (1973)
I-61 #8697161 (1974)
I-61 #8715502 (1975)
I-61 #8864961 (1976)
Does anyone have this lens or camera with documentation?
I'd like to know which countries they were exported to?

fuji positive film rvp100,my son

After a long time, something interesting to post: Zenit APk with MC Zenitar-K 1.9/50

This is a preface to a preface. On May 31, 2026, I met Greg Prior at a camera show in Detroit, Michigan. We had a very pleasant conversation and soon discovered that we shared an interest in Isaak Maizenberg. Greg had known Isaak personally, while I knew of him through his reputation and through many people in the camera collecting community who had known or worked with him.

Isaak was a prominent figure in the Soviet photographic world. He authored numerous articles for Soviet photography magazines, books on camera repair and was a renowned camera repairman in both the Soviet Union and the United States. He was also one of the pioneers of Soviet camera collecting and restoration, helping to shape the hobby and preserve its history for future generations.

After the show, Greg and I continued communicating and agreed that it would be a great idea to write an article about Isaak. The article below was written by Greg and is accompanied by an article from Shutterbug magazine. Together, they serve as a tribute to Isaak's life, his contributions to photography, and the lasting impression he made on those who knew him. I believe this site would be a perfect place to host this article. Thank you @Greg Prior!

https://ussrphoto.com/modern/Wiki/default.asp?WikiCatID=50&ParentID=49&ContentID=1738&Item=Memories+of+my+friend+Isaak+Maizenberg++

Hello,I had purchased that Fed some days ago in USA. And I received yesterday a message from ebay saying it had been "liquidated".
It's not the first time that such a thing happens. Vlad knows that too.
But, in that precise case, this Fed was made in 1939, in Kharkiv, which is in Ukraine, as everybody knows. More of all, it is still engraved with YCCP, Y for Ukraine, of course. So I don't understand why the US restrictive decrets were applied.

I was (or will be) reimbursed. But I wonder about the reason of this liquidation. Who took that decision? Ebay? The US administration? And this 1c was the last known, for the moment.
All that is grotesque.

Jacques.

This i a very interesting Kiev 4 (?) camera wiki entry that warrants some discussion, first of all it has the "T"-shaped ridge on top of the light meter which is fairly atypical for the 1957 Kiev 4 and what happened to the flash sync contact? this is extremely weird. Denn I saw you post this, is there a photo of the bottom of the camera? does it have a leg like III or it's flat like IV?

Found this today at a flea market, and took pics with my Communicator to ask if this leather like covering is rare?
So excuse for the poor picture quality by Nokia:





Smena rules

According to J L Princelle's book, Zenit-Es manufactured by KMZ between 1965 and 1968 did not have instant-return mirrors. The earliest camera that I have found so far is a 1968 model, and that certainly has got an instant-return mirror. Can anyone confirm that the earliest versions of the Zenit-E did indeed not have instant-return mirrors. I assume that these early versions would only be available with 39mm lens mounts. Any information would be much appreciated.

David.

looking for a cheap spare parts kiev4a/am for a TTL metering project, i already have a spare shutter modified with a light sensor.
The body i originally wanted to use is no good tho.
I'm looking for spare Kiev4am body to drop the shutter in, a 4m would also be fine but the whole point is is kind of the get rid of the original selenium meter.

Regarding the thread https://ussrphoto.com/modern/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3631 , I note that, sadly, the links posted by Luiz Paracampo are no longer accessible.

Could one of you please upload these files to the forum, or let me know where I can access them?

Thanks in advance

JT

Hello,
Found on Meshok, this Fed 1a where everything is normal, except this extra (and evident) "1".
Strange...

Jacques.

I found this film canister on eBay recently. It once contained AGFA Isopan F film, manufactured in Bitterfeld/Wolfen. What makes it special is that the label also includes Russian text.
Later, the name AGFA was replaced by ORWO.



Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de

Hello,
The "Leica fakes" thread gave me the idea of a "non Leica fakes" one.
By "non Leica fakes", I mean cameras with the LTM/M39 system, made from Fed/Zorki bodies. The engraving on the cover can be a Canon, Shanghai, SAGEM, etc.

Here is my Fed-Nicca:
- Fed shutter box,
- Nicca cover and RF.

Feel free to post your discoveries!

Amitiés. Jacques.

Hi !
FED #12807 + #12808




Moscow-4 #5500611 + #5500612


FED #7428 + #7429 + #7430

i recently bought some etone shutter curtain to replace the old ones in my zorki3.
I noticed because the etone curtains are only 0.15mm at speed 1/1000 the curtain dosent create a gap, i had to make the drum thicker by adding extra curtain material.
now the gap for 1/1000 at the begin of the travel is about ~1,2mm and at the end ~3,4mm.

So im looking for a better source for zorki curtains since the last post discussing is already over a decade old.

Hello,

I recently showed a photo of the Hammer-and-Sickle FED No. 3214. I was wondering why the shutter curtains were faulty – after all, I’ve had it for 15 years.
So I took it apart to repair it.



When I took the cover off, what on earth was that? A Zorki cover! The ‘Zorki’ lettering had been stamped out and sanded down at the top.



If you look closely at the top, you can still make out a sort of shadow of the ‘Zorki’ lettering.



It is also strange that some parts were numbered. The shutter box and the housing have a ‘74’ scratched into them, and on the top, the ‘74’ has even been stamped in.







The date scratched into the side of the case is also still visible, but in an unusual format: 7 - 8 - 5. Could this perhaps be 7 August 1955?



Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de