FED 5s
The Fed 5s is the successor of a long
range of Soviet Leica copies built since 1934. The FED 5s was built
since 1977 by the FED factory in the Ukraine. "FED" means "Felix
Edmundovich Djerjinsky", who was the founder of the Tcheka, the
precessor of the KGB. Don't ask me why the factory came to this name,
please...
The FED 5c might not have the original look of Leica, but in its guts it is still very Leica. It has the vertical operating cloth shutter curtain with speeds ranging from 1 - 1/500 s and B, the M39 screw mount, a ragefinder, a self timer, a build-in uncoupled selenium exponometer and a hot shoe. The back of the camera is removable, making it easy to load the camera.
The FED 5s is delivered with an Industar-61L/D 55mm 1:2.8 lens which is quite interesting as it is weakly readioactive due to its lanthanium coating. Please have a look at Alfred Klomp's page to read more about that curiosity.
The shutter curtain is truely Leica, you can even replace it with an original Leica curtain. The shutter speeds are quite accurate, making a sound like a "shlop" when releasing the shutter. On the top right of the camera you find the film advance and cocking lever with the huge exposure counter in its top. I don't know why the counter is so big, but sometimes it hinders me a bit from pressing the shutter release button (to the left of it). Round the button you find the film rewing lock release which has to be pushed down before rewinding the film.
Between the shutter release button and the hot shoe lies the shutter speed dial. IMPORTANT: Please only change the shutter speed AFTER you cocked the shutter! As the speed dial turns while cocking the shutter, the time you choose before cocking would change after cocking. In addition, changing speeds before cocking can damage the whole mechanism.
Left to the hot shoe (synchronised for 1/30 s) you find the exponometer window. In contrary to the Zenit ES or the Kiev 4 you have to manually transfer the number the meter shows to the aperture/speed dial on the camera top's left. This is quite clumsy, as the meter is not very accurate at all.
The FED's rangefinder is working with a quite big rangefinder window in the viewfinder. Although it has a quite small base, the photographs are very well focussed. The RF should also work with other non-Industar lenses, although there should be some differences with the infinity position at several lenses. I have no other M39 lens, so I can't say anything to that.
A typical Soviet camera characteristic is the clumsy rewind knob, which does not miss at the FED 5c, too. Rewinding is a real pain! The camera is round up by the self timer with the seperate release which is working with a length between 9 and 12 s.
The FED 5c is a nice camera which produces excellent photographs and is much fun to use. When using it you can feel every screw working, it is a very robust piece of metal. The only pain in the ass concerning the design is the cheap leatherette covering which seems to be some kind of paper. Nevertheless I'd recommend buying this camera (I paid 99 EUR), you'll have lots of fun and the images are clear and sharp.
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The FED 5c might not have the original look of Leica, but in its guts it is still very Leica. It has the vertical operating cloth shutter curtain with speeds ranging from 1 - 1/500 s and B, the M39 screw mount, a ragefinder, a self timer, a build-in uncoupled selenium exponometer and a hot shoe. The back of the camera is removable, making it easy to load the camera.
The FED 5s is delivered with an Industar-61L/D 55mm 1:2.8 lens which is quite interesting as it is weakly readioactive due to its lanthanium coating. Please have a look at Alfred Klomp's page to read more about that curiosity.
The shutter curtain is truely Leica, you can even replace it with an original Leica curtain. The shutter speeds are quite accurate, making a sound like a "shlop" when releasing the shutter. On the top right of the camera you find the film advance and cocking lever with the huge exposure counter in its top. I don't know why the counter is so big, but sometimes it hinders me a bit from pressing the shutter release button (to the left of it). Round the button you find the film rewing lock release which has to be pushed down before rewinding the film.
Between the shutter release button and the hot shoe lies the shutter speed dial. IMPORTANT: Please only change the shutter speed AFTER you cocked the shutter! As the speed dial turns while cocking the shutter, the time you choose before cocking would change after cocking. In addition, changing speeds before cocking can damage the whole mechanism.
Left to the hot shoe (synchronised for 1/30 s) you find the exponometer window. In contrary to the Zenit ES or the Kiev 4 you have to manually transfer the number the meter shows to the aperture/speed dial on the camera top's left. This is quite clumsy, as the meter is not very accurate at all.
The FED's rangefinder is working with a quite big rangefinder window in the viewfinder. Although it has a quite small base, the photographs are very well focussed. The RF should also work with other non-Industar lenses, although there should be some differences with the infinity position at several lenses. I have no other M39 lens, so I can't say anything to that.
A typical Soviet camera characteristic is the clumsy rewind knob, which does not miss at the FED 5c, too. Rewinding is a real pain! The camera is round up by the self timer with the seperate release which is working with a length between 9 and 12 s.
The FED 5c is a nice camera which produces excellent photographs and is much fun to use. When using it you can feel every screw working, it is a very robust piece of metal. The only pain in the ass concerning the design is the cheap leatherette covering which seems to be some kind of paper. Nevertheless I'd recommend buying this camera (I paid 99 EUR), you'll have lots of fun and the images are clear and sharp.
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All photographs and texts © 2004 by Tobias
Költzsch.