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FED-5B production restarted in Taiwan?


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<p>QG, the site Kuzma's link points to contains a link to redarmycamera.jp and says that redarmycamera is the manufacturer. I used Google Translate on redarmycamera.jp, which says "RED ARMY CAMERA is a 35mm rangefinder camera FED has been produced at the factory in the city of Kharkov from 1977 until 1990."</p>

<p>I'm pretty sure that redarmycamera is selling reskinned FEDs. I can't tell one FED from another, believe that they are FED 5s.</p>

<p>Kozma, the rule is, garbage in, garbage out. Fine clothes do not a fine lady make.</p>

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<p>Dan, the point is that what is under the skin? In the late 80-ies and early 90-ies FEDs were technologically outdated and suffered quality issues. They did not survive the influx of imported cheap and convenient Japanese PaS cameras. However shall FEDs be built by the design specification they would be at least fine performers. I would not call them a garbage anyway. If this Japanese company do quality assembly cameras they would be OK, at least for hipsters.</p>
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<p>I am sure that removal of the smell is part of the refurbishing process. Even so, with the rebuilding, $350 is a lot of money for one of these, especiallly when the base cost is around one tenth of that. If you want to gussy up your existing Fed or Zenit, skinslove.com has a plethora of cool coverings for many cameras.</p>
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<p>The smell comes mainly from the never-ready case, which is not pictured on their site. Unless yak fat is the basis of the camera's lubricant.<br>

BTW, I have two zenits and three Feds, a 1g and two Fed 3's. All work just fine although I did have to replace a shutter curtain in the 1g.</p>

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<p>What I gather is that there is a weird little trading company in Japan that is selling new old stock Feds that they have reskinned. For 27,000 yen (about $300) you get a box with a FED, an Indrustar 55/2.8 lens and a roll of film, plus detailed instructions on how to load the camera. This is mostly likely run out of someone apartment, like a lot of cottage industries in Japan. </p>
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<p>I noticed today that they are sold out ! Sounds like that they were inspired by the Lomo business model. Buy up a bunch of camras that no one really wants then hype the hell out of it.<br>

At least they are helping to keep film in production. :)</p>

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<p>As a Taiwanese I'm curious to find out, but I just didn't find the word Taiwan mentioned anywhere in the linked page.<br>

" ... Our cameras are packed in original boxes one by one carefully remade in Singapore, all of which is the process of art. "</p>

<p>As for the info on the specific product, it means to declare that "RED ARMY CAMERA is a 35mm rangefinder camera FED has been produced at the factory in the city of Kharkov from 1977 until 1990.", as already mentioned in Dan's previous post. These are FSU cameras refurbished to good working condition. The keyword there means <em>refurbish</em>, as far as I know(it uses Kanji characters here that I understand). So the only thing new is probably the colorful skin.</p>

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