I was going to sell my Fed 1...now I have second thoughts

[steve salmons]

I was all set to sell one or two of my unused Russian rangefinder

cameras which have remained unused since purchase. They were bought

for "completeness" of the collection but I now need to raise cash to

buy a scanner so they have to go. However I felt I could not sell

without having put at least a roll of film through. First up was a Fed

1 with 50mm f3.5 collapsible Fed lens. The results on XP2 were scanned

to CD at the shop and first impressions were that they lacked contrast

and were not sharp.

Now here is the rub...the more I look at the damn things,the more I

like the effect! See the 3 pics attached.<div></div>

[steve salmons]

Second Pic<div></div>

[steve salmons]

Third Pic<div></div>

[michael schub]

The Soviet cameras are like peanuts - can't stop buying. Twenty years ago they were exotic and expensive in the USA so they seem particularly cheap to me, but the cost does add up when you start accumulating.

 

I have an early Zorki 1 that I rebuilt and a late Fed 1 and both take super pictures. I collected many early Feds when they were cheaper but they are not good picture takers unless you calibrate the registration distance. Indeed only the late Fed 1 and Zorki I have reliable registration, so it may be either the lens or the body (or both) causing those dreamy results. By the way the collapsible Industar-50 is the best of the collapsible Fed/Elmar/Tessar 50s and really quite good.

 

No that doesn't address your quandary: cash or camera? For me these cameras come close enough to the experience of the screw mount Leica without the expense. They are so compact and handy and fulfill the original premise of the "miniature" camera and at a price that can't be beat. With a wrist strap screwed into the bottom they are really fun on the streets.

[connealy]

Shooting in marginal lighting conditions with grainy film doesn't seem like a very fair test of the lenses. Your uploads are too big to view on my monitor and very slow to download over a modem connection. All that aside, the escalator shot is pretty nice, and it has nice tonality and the sharpness seems ok to me. Here's a reduced version of your escalator at 550 pixels height. If you keep the images under 511 pixels in width and put in a caption, they will display in-line with the message.<div></div>

[david_f._stein]

I don't think you can buy these cameras with an eye towards reselling. They are still in seemingly endless supply for the cost of a GOOD meal. Even something like the Fed 5B with 61 L/R is an outstanding picture taker.

[johnjames]

I actually appreciate the larger file size. Often people post images that are too small or lack sufficient detail. That escalator pic was fantastic and really looked nice as a larger file. Perhaps people could post two versions, a lower res. one for the dial-up folks and a larger one for the broadband users like me.

 

That being said, keep the Fed!

[steve salmons]

Thanks for the kind words and observations everyone.

Apologies for forgetting to resize before uploading the pics. This post was done in a bit of a hurry and I have been on broadband so long I have almost forgotten how frustrating a dial up modem connection can be. John's suggestion was a good one. It would be handy if the upload could be available at original size as a link along with an upload rendering of the image at reduced size as posted by Mike.

My original idea for putting film through was as a kind of pre-sale fault finder rather than any kind of lens test. It just happened that the images I liked were those shot in the more challenging lighting conditions. Maybe the lesson I have learnt here is to use my lenses wide-open more often to achieve more unpredictable (interesting?) results. I would confess to being guilty all too often of leaving the lens on f8 to give theoretical best performance and focusing safety net.

And yes, I still haven't decided whether to sell it or not.

[connealy]

I'm tempted to get one of the LTM clones everytime I see some nice shots like that, but I'm beginning to feel stupid over the number of 35mm cameras I already have. I'm usually happier with an image that fits on the screen so that I can judge the composition as it was intended. There probably isn't an ideal solution to displaying anything on a monitor; that seems to me to be the next big hurdle. I would like to see some easier ways to display images connected to the forums. It is possible to put thumbnails in the messages, but it takes a lot of work with html which I'm not usually willing to undertake. Of course, it would be nice too if I did have broadband as an option, but it ain't gonna happen where I live. At this point, if I come on a thread with five or six big color images, I just pass it by, even it is by someone whose work I admire.

[john_robison3]

Steve, I know too well what your feeling, so many cameras, so little time. That said, your shots with the 50 really look great, reminds me of street shooting when I lived in Chicago in the 60-70's. Love the look of the 50mm. Michael,s points were well taken, the amount of money you could get from the sale of the camera would likley not equal the fun of even occasionial use of the camera, kinda like my old Mamiya C tlr stuff, I don't use it much but I can't get much $ for it these days and the value is still dropping so I just hang on to it. regards, John R.

[pensacolaphoto]

I have a large 35mm SLR "collection" of cameras and lenses that I used to use extensively, but I have been favoring rangefinder cameras since a few years. Reselling is out of the question due to absurdly low prices, so I will keep my SLR set and use it once in a while and may give part of it away to a good home one day. I recently got two Zorky4 cameras and I have a FED5. The focusing is not as quick on these cameras as I can do with an M3 or Canon P. Any Leica screw mount lens will fit (or similar), and that's what really counts, in addition to the cool feel of using classical equipment.

[claudia__]

i have a Zorki 1c which is a backup for my Leica IIIf and although I don't use it much I plan to keep it as it is quite well made compared to the later ones. the Industar 50 is actually sharper than the prewar Elmar (with the odd aperture numbers.) since you would not get much by selling them, why not keep them and enjoy?

[steve salmons]

OK,I am persuaded.I don't need much encouragement to hang onto cameras. It looks like the Fed is now a keeper.My justification is that maybe one day when all the other Fed 1s have been converted into fake Leicas it will have become fabulously valuable! Ho hum.

[john_bennetto]

So was I till I came across the FED Siberie..what a camera beautiful and takes good pix to boot! Love those Russian cameras