Fed 1 general questions and lenses (modern)

Hello everyone

I do have an ok-ish copy of what I beleive is a Fed 1d, feel free to confirm or correct me here. SN 128295
On the lens back 128698 627

What the second number on the leans means?

The lens is a bad shape, at least the glass, very hazy and a bit scratched

Do you see something unusual or it is a plain simple fed?

As far as I understood those cameras have a not standard flange distance, hence difficult or impossible to use modern-ish lenses. Is that correct?
https://imgur.com/a/vl6tzPM

Hello,

All seems fine and regular. By the serial numbers, your lens was originally appaired with the body. You are right to say that the flange is not regular: by my measures on my own prewar Feds, it can vary by more than half a millimeter. So, you cannot be sure of the result if you use a modern lens. Of course, the regulation of the body to 28,8mm is possible (and not difficult).

About the second number on the lens, most of them have one. A factory mark, of course, but why? Production? Control? I don't know.

Amitiés. Jacques.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Jacques M.</i>
<br />Hello,

All seems fine and regular. By the serial numbers, your lens was originally appaired with the body. You are right to say that the flange is not regular: by my measures on my own prewar Feds, it can vary by more than half a millimeter. So, you cannot be sure of the result if you use a modern lens. Of course, the regulation of the body to 28,8mm is possible (and not difficult).

About the second number on the lens, most of them have one. A factory mark, of course, but why? Production? Control? I don't know.

Amitiés. Jacques.
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Hello Jacques! thanks for reply

I was noting a small difference, wondering if this is something you have seen before, the rewind knob is not flush to the top plate in my copy, all the pictures i see on line of FED1 d are like the one on the left in the image below, mine is the right one, looks like the knob has been replaced with another one? if so why and do someone recognize that style of knob?

https://i.imgur.com/0fxh2pq.jpeg

regarding the lens second number apparently we will never know, it can be anything.

i found also this

http://USSRPhoto.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3391

Summarizing there are three different problems to take into consideration: -a- the pitch: 0,977mm/turn on Leicas, 1 mm/turn on Fed and Zorkis. But I very rarely had problems to mount Leica lenses on my Feds (and vice-versa); -b- the start of the pitch and the final position of the infinity button: the mess on very early Feds! But shooting is always possible. -c- the register which should always be 28,8mm on Leica type cameras. It's far from being always the case on Feds. Bodies/lenses were appaired one by one at the factory and nowadays, it can be difficult to find the good original couples...

1 probably is not a big problem

2 this is a problem of ergonomics, for example the scale might ends on the bottom of the lens

3 for a 28 25mm or wider is less than a problem. Set hyperfocal and off you go.

I was thinking to buy a snapshot skopar 25mm f4 which do not have RF coupling at all and with a matching external viewfinder use the camera as a stealth point ans shoot for street, but not sure if the positioning will correct, in fact if i mount another Industar 10 from 50s the focusing tab is completely out of place.
Thoughts?

thanks

Marco

Ha! I had not seen the "extra" rewind knob, certainly borrowed to a Zorki S or 2S. The original one is not very easy to use, but that one hurts the general line of the camera. You can choose: it's easy to replace.

About the pitch, it's right the Leica's and the Fed's ones are not the same. I have a number of Leica lenses, and some cannot be mounted on prewar Feds. All that is a question of wear of the two screws: lens and lensplate. And no doubt that some prewar Feds were standardized... So, there is no rule.

About the final position of the lens, you can play with the position of the lensplate. One of my Sonnars is mounted on a Fed S 1d, but I turned the lensplate of 90° clockwise to have a correct position.

Concerning the Skopar, I never used one of them. Just the 28mm Fed: very particular for the tunes, but difficult to find in a good condition... And the Biogon/Jup 12 is perfect too (for me).

Amitiés. Jacques.

Fed 1d cameras come pretty close to being a bit standard (not 28.8 but shorter) and having the same pitch entry as the Fed 1f. Before they changed to the Fed 1g being Leica compatible.

The quality and finish of these Fed cameras can be very good.I even found blued and hardened screws inside them.

The lens elements can be cleaned. Sometimes the dirt or oil becomes hard as wax, and you need something like a solder resin cleaner to remove it. The coloring oil like fringe on the lenses is normal for their age, it is a natural coating that develops over time.

Be careful with alcohol and cleaning agents on the rear element. It can dissolve the canada balsam cement.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Jacques M.</i>
<br />
Ha! I had not seen the "extra" rewind knob, certainly borrowed to a Zorki S or 2S. The original one is not very easy to use, but that one hurts the general line of the camera. You can choose: it's easy to replace.

About the pitch, it's right the Leica's and the Fed's ones are not the same. I have a number of Leica lenses, and some cannot be mounted on prewar Feds. All that is a question of wear of the two screws: lens and lensplate. And no doubt that some prewar Feds were standardized... So, there is no rule.

About the final position of the lens, you can play with the position of the lensplate. One of my Sonnars is mounted on a Fed S 1d, but I turned the lensplate of 90° clockwise to have a correct position.

Concerning the Skopar, I never used one of them. Just the 28mm Fed: very particular for the tunes, but difficult to find in a good condition... And the Biogon/Jup 12 is perfect too (for me).

Amitiés. Jacques.

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HiJacques,

Thanks, indeed is from the zorki S or similar. I didn't notice immediately, but yeah is not helping the pocketability for sure, will see what I can do.

I also find that probably it was shipped with the front viewfinder/rangefinder screw able glasses swapped, can you confirm?

In picture below top as shipped, bottom after I swapped them, and cleaned. Which one is correct?

https://i.imgur.com/BvYYfVz.png

Regarding the 28mm orion is not cheap, but the skopar as well. I would gladly use it on my xpro1 as well. The skopar by the way looks impossible to find unless is not fron japan, and I am in Europe. Will see, for now I am shooting a test roll to see shutter condition.

Marco

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="MS Trebuchet, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Valkir1987</i>
<br />Fed 1d cameras come pretty close to being a bit standard (not 28.8 but shorter) and having the same pitch entry as the Fed 1f. Before they changed to the Fed 1g being Leica compatible.

The quality and finish of these Fed cameras can be very good.I even found blued and hardened screws inside them.

The lens elements can be cleaned. Sometimes the dirt or oil becomes hard as wax, and you need something like a solder resin cleaner to remove it. The coloring oil like fringe on the lenses is normal for their age, it is a natural coating that develops over time.

Be careful with alcohol and cleaning agents on the rear element. It can dissolve the canada balsam cement.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Hi Valkir, thanks for replying &#9786;&#65039;
Indeed the quality and condition of the body seems quite good, not leica good, and probably not contax good, but nice on hand. The lens is in poor state, the back elements have heavy haze and scratches on the front, will try to take a picture, it is pretty evident with a light shining through

This is the reason I was thinking to buy a new lens, in particular a 28mm or wider to avoid any register issue and just shoot hyperfocal.

Marco

Your VF/RF finders seem in order now. Swapping the two without noticing it is strange: a glance through the two ones is enough...
About the lens, Milo's advice is wise: if necessary, try to clean your own Industar 10 which is precious as original. Then, a Jup 12 would be perfect: inexpensive and easy to shoot hyperfocal.

Amitiés. Jacques.