Some FED 3 info requested.

Hello all, for a couple of years the only USSR equipment I owned was a Lomo Blik which has exactly the same distances on it as those on the lens of camera that can't be mentioned on here as it isn't from the USSR.

Recently I've been looking at buying a rangefinder which has a user-adjustable rangefinder, in both Horizontal and Vertical planes. To this end I've had two copies of a camera that can't be named as it isn't from the USSR. Both were broken when received so I sent them back.

I then decided to have another look at various Zorki and FED cameras.

Even though I like them, I decided against the Zorki 4 and 4K as I find it hard to see the frame edges while wearing glasses. I decided to rule out the Zorki 6 and FED 2 as their shutter speed range is a bit limited.

I find the FED 4 much too big, the rangefinder patch on the 2 I previously owned(some years apart) were so bright I found it difficult to see the part of the viewfinder image that the patch covered, so for me it was hard to tell it it was in focus and I don't like the rewind method.

This has led me to the FED 3. So I would be grateful if you good people could tell me a few things:

1) Is there any brightness difference between the rangefinder patches of the FED 3A, the FED 3B and the FED 4 (the later one with the black bit between the rangefinder window and the viewfinder window)?

2) Do all FED 3A's have 3/8" tripod sockets and do all FED 3B's have 1/4" tripod sockets?

3) I believe the FED 3B's have Horizontal and vertical adjustment for the rangefinder on the front of the camera (around the rangefinder window, and under a screw near the viewfinder window), is this correct and do the FED 3A's have this arrangement?

4) I've seen listings on ebay for FED 3's which include what looks like a film cassette as well as a taker up spool. Do either the 3A's or 3B's NEED the thing that looks like a film cassette?


Thank you any help any member can provide, it will be much appreciated.

Hello all. I couldn't wait any longer and I've bought a FED 3A(5) (5th "version" on the sovietcams website). The industar 26m is in as good a condition anyone could hope for, but the shutter is a bit odd as going from a fast speed to 1/60 stops the shutter firing and the wind-on doesn't wind the shutter up properly, but move it to 1 second and wind it a couple of times and the shutter fires and the fast speeds fire. I don't think most speeds are accurate so it'll go to a technician soon.

Sounds like it is gummed up - my Fed 4 was like that. I was able to carefully remove the top cover and clean/lube the various spindles, bearings etc. Speeds were pretty much perfect after that. Best to get a camera tech to do it as its easy to make things worse if you are not sure what you are doing :)

Cheers,
Steve

Hello Steve, Thanks for the reply. I took it to the tech, actually to the shop that will send it to the tech, earlier today. I explained the two problems with it (rangefinder doesn't focs to infinity and the shutter problem), and the assistant tried the shutter a couple of times and it worked properly (though not necessarily accurately). I thought perhaps I'd been setting it to 1/15 rather than 1/60 (as they are very close together) when it was doing its "odd stuff", but it worked even when I tried at that speed, lol! Anyway I still asked them to send it to the tech, so if there is any problem with the shutter it should be sorted out, and if there's no problem then the speeds should be more accurate because it's had a service.

I took the camera to the shop six weeks ago, and I emailed the shop last week, and they've not heard from the tech. yet. This beginning to get on my nerves now. The other two times that a camera took six weeks or more to come back from the tech. "couldn't" be fixed. I don't even know if the tech. has even looked at my FED 3A yet!