FED 670

This could be noted as the swan song in FED camera making and developing. One unit, possible the same one pictured from SF maganine was sold in an auction in Germany in 2002. I have a previous article from 1998 possibly also in SF about development os this camera. It shows a different picture. Always with the proeminent Helios Lens. I want to know from you opinions about the success of such a camera. - Note that 200 roubles represented the triple of a FED 5 cost, then in normal production.
PS: I did several experiences, and the world known Helios 44 of 58mm, completely covers the 6x6 format. The used 65mm Helios would be a normal lens for the 4.5x6 picture and a wide angle in the 6x7 format.

Hello Luiz,

I'm sure that this would hve been a very nice camera to use and with large negatives and this design, a pleasure to see the results.

I know of two actual prototypes of this camera and unfortunately, neither was built to be functional, and in fact neither did work. They were both "mock-ups" made for advertising purposes to show what the camera would look like, probably for Photokina type shows, or for financial investors to look at.

I was offered one of these, but did not buy it because the price was so high and it was not complete. The other was offered to a friend in Europe who did not buy that one for similar reasons. However, no doubt someone bought these two and they are now in collections somewhere!

Regards, Bill

Hi Bill
In fact this camera has many potencialities and is very easy to be used. It has no exposure meter, only rangefinder with aerial images of similar construction to Zeiss Ikon rangefinder used in many top Polaroid cameras. The shutter is the same used in FED 10 and FED Atlas, itself an extended production of German Pentacon TEMPOR shutters. The external design is clearly inspired from Fuji 645 series medium format rangefinders but seems to have no complicated internal construction of them. Two film inserts change the format and frame counter. If we could have access to the original body tools those cameras, they can be easily duplicated at very affordable prices.
Regards.
LP

Very interesting we could have a collection of photos of such camera,

Bill, did you keep any images of these cameras from the time they were offered to you?

Vlad.

Vlad,
I don't have photos of the one that was on Ebay, however I do have some photos of the one that was offered at the Leica Shop in Vienna in 2002.

I will look for them and add them to the WIKI entry over the weekend. They are very detailed and interesting.

Regards, Bill

That will be awesome! Thanks Bill! I will also try to add some entries sometime next week, I had not done it in a while... been very busy with work like you.. I'm getting some very interesting cameras within next couple of weeks so expect cool entries. :) That steel covered Zorki just by itself will steal the show. :)

Vlad