Early FED 1b with green curtains

Hello,

this beauty arrived here the last days. A FED 1b (PE0165) without accessory shoe together with matching leather bag and lens cap. The bag and the lens cap have fine dark blue leather inside. The chrome is very fine and the engraving on the top is very thin.
The shutter curtains are green! I have never seen such a FED before. They seem to be original to me regarding the sewing.

Here are some pictures:











Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de

Happy to see a very early Fed 1b!
Yes, I have already seen green curtains on early Feds: 1a, some scarce 1b and even a 1d.
But they are really very rare.

I own the s/n 7122 with normal black curtains, not far from yours, Ulrich. These green curtains could correspond to a repair, made at a time when this material was available. Only a supposition!

Amitiйs. Jacques.

What a beauty !!!
I can confirm green curtains are original. I saw it before but only once or twice only.
But why is the engraving on the top so thin ?

Congratulation, Ulrich!
I have had also one with green curtains, s/n 5xxx, you can see it here:
http://ussrphoto.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1466&whichpage=2

Regards, Alexander

Ulrich my congratulations !!!
This is the original FED. Blinds green are also original. I have seen this many times. Great sample! Once again, congratulations!

Ulrich, you tell the number of the lens or show the photo please.

Thanks guys :-)

yes, it is real beautiful. I only cleaned it a bit, so there was not much to do for me. Seems that it was not used very much. Unfortunately the second curtain is not more light tight but I don't want to take pictures with it.

Alexander, I made a statement as you showed your ones with the green curtains, that they used the green ones when they don't have black material, but that was just a guess of me. I don't know it for sure.

The number of the lens is 7121, so it is the one delivered with the camera I think.

Some other points I have seen: The viewfinder window on the front has light yellow glass instead of clear glass and the milling of the knobs is slightly diagonal. And the screws of the body are not chromed, they look nickel plated.

Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de

Yes, 99.9 % that the lens was delivered with this camera.
It seems only one screw is not original. It can be seen it is bigger than it should be. I mean the screw on the left at the back of the camera.

By Princelle (and others?) these green shutters are original, I know.
But I am not so sure: if yes, we should have batches of cameras made with this kind of shutter, not samples scattered here and there. Even on a 1d with an correct iron shutter box (white metal).

But I can be completely wrong as well.

Really a splendid camera, with its matching lens. How do you manage to get new cameras, Ulrich?

Amitiйs. Jacques.

Jacques, this is big question about way of confirmation if sth is originally made or not.
I saw FED NKVD with original vulcanit of colour the same like coffee with milk. It could be seen because structure of the vulcanite and material was the same like in black FEDs.
My friend, who is historian of art and who is strongly interested in FEDs NKVD, confirmed it is original. We saw such FED only one time.
Let's assume only 5 such FEDs were made (I don't know how many were made, maybe only 1 or 2 or 3). How can you prove it is original ? You cannot find many of them because only 5 were made.

Alfa, yes that was a wrong screw, it was one from the 4 front screws. Thanks for the hint :-)

Jacques, I saw the camera in a batch together with 6 other cameras that the seller wants to sell for a very high price and asked what he wanted to have for the only one russian camera in his batch. The price was ok ;-) That it looks like new and has green curtains then was just luck.

Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de

Welcome Ulrich. Nice I could help. :)

I have just taken out my early Fed 1b (7122, 7373 and 8528)from the shelves to compare with this s/n 7102. There are interesting differences, between the four cameras, concerning the milling of the buttons and the shape of the release button. And more, I have no "diagonal" milling like on the 7102.

That makes me think that there was perhaps no real batch for these first 1b, and that they were mounted from old 1a and new 1b parts together.

About the screws: they are magnetic on these cameras. We know that thanks to Alexey. Is it the case too for yours, Ulrich?

Amitiйs. Jacques.

Jacques,

look at the picture on Aidas site, camera no #7490, it has the same diagonal milling. The screws are magnetic, I have tested it.

Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de

Ah yes. Diagonal milling too on my s/n 8528. Old 1a milling on the 7373. And a "normal" later 1b on the 7122!

Really, these 1b are the most interesting Fed! Once more, I suspect that some of them were mounted from 1a parts. Not astonishing, considering the number of 1a which were certainly re-sent for repair...

Thanks to have given us the pleasure to discuss of them, Ulrich!