denis_pleic Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 Last week I bought a nice FED 2 (and also a nice FED 3). After a week and some serious work on the camera, I prepared a whole photo-essay on this adventure.</p> See my <a href="http://open.hr/~dpleic/photo/fed2.html">FED 2 Adventures</a> page.</p> For those with slower connections - beware, there's about 1MB of photos there.</p> Denis<div></div> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henricus Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 Denis, <p>If I can offer a suggestion. You have more resolution than is required for online posting of photos. Your files are huge and even on my jet fast cable line they take forever to load. They took so long that I gave up. I'll have to go back to it later. Reload your photos with 72dpi and the file size will go down enough that they will load faster. <p> <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=272180">My FED pics.</a> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denis_pleic Posted August 1, 2004 Author Share Posted August 1, 2004 <I> If I can offer a suggestion. You have more resolution than is required for online posting of photos. Your files are huge and even on my jet fast cable line they take forever to load. They took so long that I gave up. I'll have to go back to it later. Reload your photos with 72dpi and the file size will go down enough that they will load faster. </I></p> Thanks for the tip, Henry.</p> I downsampled to 72 dpi, and sizes did shrink a bit.</p> Still, it's a photo-intensive page, and you can't expect it to load in 3 seconds, if you want to see anything on those photos, right? </p> :-) </p> Some of the W/NW threads on the Leica forum here on Photo.net take much longer to load than my page - at least for me.</p> Still, the size of all images is more than 800KB, so be warned.</p> Also, the hosting server isn't really lighting fast, I guess.</p> Denis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pensacolaphoto Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 Hi Denis, I also have cable connection but I had to give up after waiting to see the photos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gene m Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 Too slow.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henricus Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 Dennis,<p>I finally just minimized the window and went outside to do something else. When I returned it was all there! I liked it. It was very interesting and captures what an adventure these little beauties can be. :-) Keep looking for better examples of the FED 2 and you'll find a great one like my Anya pictured above. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denis_pleic Posted August 1, 2004 Author Share Posted August 1, 2004 Sorry everyone for the slow link.</p> I moved the pages to a server in the US, and the new URL where you can find the page(s) is here: <a href="http://www.hrtranslations.com/photo/photo.html">Photo stuff</a> page.</p> Click on "FED 2: an essay", and it's there.</p> Please, let me know if it's any faster...</p> Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h._p. Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 Much better! Some interesting pictures as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rj Posted August 1, 2004 Share Posted August 1, 2004 I liked the page very much Denis. No loading problems on this end. The FED2 looks like a very clean example of a mid-century rangefinder. It's also the splitting image of a IIIf, although the luxury of bottom-loading film isn't available here. Any difficulties with the rangefinder brightness in dim light? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denis_pleic Posted August 2, 2004 Author Share Posted August 2, 2004 <I>Any difficulties with the rangefinder brightness in dim light?</p></I></p>Not really - at least not any more so than the other Russian RF gear.</p>It's still usable in dim light, although you might have to try a little harder :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick roberts Posted August 2, 2004 Share Posted August 2, 2004 I picked up a 2 in Prague about 10 years ago for about the same amount of money, and it's indeed a great camera. My very first rangefinder was a Zorki 4, which was really great, and now I've got a FED 4 as well as the 2 to go with a Leica IIf RD and IIIf BD, and a Kiev 4 to keep my Contax IIIa company. Of all the "Russians", the FED 2 offers the closest experience to the Leicas, and I like it a lot. The rounded corners on the negs was a surprise the first time I used it, but my FED technique is to load up with 400 ISO B&W, take a meter reading, and then estimate exposure. The shutter on mine is well within that kind of tolerance!Although I was very well aware of how good the Jupiter lenses are, I have been very pleasantly surprised by the Industar - it's very good indeed. In short, I reckon the FED 2 is possibly the most underrated camera on the planet.Thanks, Denis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dean_g Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 I agree the FED2 is underrated. I quite happy with mine. I'd love to have a nice IIIf, and at a camera show a couple years back I had a chance to play with one a bit and came away impressed at the smooth operation, the tidy 'snick' of the shutter, and overall watch-like feeling of precision. But the FED2, while a bit cruder in feel to me, appeals to my working class sensibilities, and I'm always amazed at how little vibration is created when I release the shutter. Being primarily a digital shooter now, I guess I only play at being a Leica RF style photographer, and for that the FED2 offers most of the experience without the price tag. It's the one film 35mm I kept when I got into the digital thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mskovacs Posted August 3, 2004 Share Posted August 3, 2004 Sounds like I am embarking on a similar adventure with my Kiev. I'd like to strip a FED2 down to the shutter curtains and back again as a learning experience. Maybe my next project... Nice shots Denis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_dilenardo Posted August 7, 2004 Share Posted August 7, 2004 well ive just developed the first test film (about half a roll) from my fed 2 from that auction site. had to strip the lens down and re polish the barrel and clean clean clean! all the insides. the negs are looking really sharp and contrasty and i cant wait to print them. in total it cost me about ?20 including shipping from the ukraine. theres an awful lot of them about including the rather sweet looking ones with the collapsible lens( thats the next one after a zorki 4 with jupiter 8). for someone as dirt poor as me theyr a really nice camera, just a lottery if you get a good one from ebay cheers chris(uk) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_dilenardo Posted August 7, 2004 Share Posted August 7, 2004 hmmmm an english pound sign comes up as a question mark. strange Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eric_miller10 Posted August 8, 2004 Share Posted August 8, 2004 I just got my FED 2 this past week, a green one (type D). So far so good, but I did have to regrease the focusing ring, shutter curtan is in good shape, shutter speeds sound ok too. Anyone tips on easily loading it though? I'm moving from digital towards film, I have a Minolta MF SLR that is straightforward to load, but the FED is pretty akward compared to it (but at least it isn't a bottom loader). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spole Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 I just bought Fed 4 on Ebay. Has anyone used it, and how does it compare to Fed 2? Are there any useful sites on Fed 4? P.S. That is great essay Denis. Photographs woke some memories up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwilburn Posted August 16, 2004 Share Posted August 16, 2004 Zoran, just enter Zorki 4 in Google and you'll find lots of interesting sites. Also, there's always some discussion of the Feds and Zorkis on the Rangefinder Forum: http://www.rangefinderforum.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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