FED user

Hi,

just found this forum via Vlad's post to the russiancamera mailing list. I'm an amateur photographer and am using exlusively mechanical FED rangefinders. My favourite camera is Zarya, but I'm also using FED 3b quite a lot. Although there is a modest collection in my cupboard (six or seven bodies and several lenses I think), I'm not considering myself as a collector. All the gear is intended for use and for spare parts.

In addition to the rangefinders, I've got a Kiev 6S with two lenses, but haven't gotten to shoot with it very much.

Mostly shooting street stuff, printing BW at home on Durst AC800. Thinking about printing colour in the future, for family photos.

Greetings from Finland!
Jukka Lehmus

Jukka,

welcome to the site! FED 3b was the camera I grew up with and it was the camera that all baby pictures of me were shot with :).. My father had shot a lot with that camera, it's a workhorse. And it was actually one of the first cameras in my collection and I think it was the first camera in Aidas's collection of sovietcams.com and an active member of this site..

I also just shot some pictures with Kiev 6C this weekend. I can't believe it's the only Soviet camera that takes a 220 film... I used Kiev 60TTL in the past, and the pictures come out incredible... haven't seen 6C yet...

I hope to see you around on the forums!

Vlad.

Hi Vlad,

My Kiev has some light leak trouble when you cock the shutter, there's something slightly amiss with the shutter curtain timing. Haven't fixed that yet and so I'm not using the camera very much. The shutter must be cocked with the lens cap on, to prevent the leak, it's pretty awkward. The negs look good though.

I forgot, there's a lovely Moskva 2 in my cupboard as well. Another left-hand oddity!

cheers!
jukka

It's definitely worth fixing that Kiev, it's a very nice camera, one of my favorites.. but what drives me mad about it, is the very easy to press shutter button on the front of the camera.. I keep forgetting that the camera is cocked and I put it into camera bag, and it always goes off because the camera is so heavy.. which usually results in a lot of expletives thrown around :)..

I do have the Zarya but I have not tried it yet.. now I will since you're saying you like it a lot.. I am in love with Drug though.. the camera is amazing! Super sharp! I'll post some sample shots sometime later...

Vlad

By the way I saw your Zarya pics on your site... very nice! Gives it a nice moody feel... I like it a lot, I'll start using mine now :).

Vlad.

Thanks Vlad, my most recent (an unedited) pictures are always on the Flickr site: http://flickr.com/photos/jxlehmus

While the Industar-61 is said to be a lot sharper, I do prefer the "intuitive" Industar-26M for most of my photography, because of its lovely bokeh and "glow". And Zarya, having no rangefinder, is just ideal for shooting on the street bacause you just have to prefocus and then concentrate on working within that range.

Why not consider using a cable release on your Kiev? Should prevent those shutter accidents while putting the camera into the bag.

Hmm... good idea! It would lock the button in place when it's threaded on, would it?

Thanks!
Vlad.