Insane value for money

[davebell]

<p>I am chuffed. Received my brand new Industar 61 LD lens from Moscow last week, fitted it to my FED 2 loaded with Fuji Neopan 400CN. Considering this lens cost me around the equivalent of $25, and the FED around $30, the resulting quality is pretty good. Further, as I said in another post, this camera is just so much nicer to use than my now sold Leica III.</p>

<p>I very much doubt that a camera/lens combo costing 10 or 20 times as much would produce images noticeably better...... Just my opinion.</p>

<p>My only complaint is my FED doesn't have strap lugs on the side of the body and I don't yet have a suitable case. Oh well, can't have everything I suppose....</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[SCL]

<p>Hi David - I'm guessing you're using a pretty small aperture in the picture shown (which has very good tonality IMHO) since you used a high speed film outdoors in open light. How does the lens do in wide open aperture situations?</p>

[Farkle-Mpls]

<p>I had a similar positive experience with a Zorki 4C I bought from (I think) an eBay dealer in the Ukraine. I bought the camera for the Jupiter-8 50mm/F2.0 lens, as I heard they were pretty sharp and the best ones were still to be had from FSU sellers. I had no interest in the Zorki ... but ... I got the camera in near-mint condition, dropped some color film in it, stuck it on a tripod and shot a static scene in my house lit by ambient sunlight at various apertures/shutter speed combos (equivalent EV). I had the film processed and scanned without contrast or density correction and the images all looked the same in terms of exposure value! Nice! I hung onto it and it has turned out to be a great RF offering 1/1000s shutter. I can take it where I wouldn't dare shoot my M7.</p>

<p>And the Jupiter lens turned out to be a great value too. Total for camera, lens and shipping: $60.</p>

<p>The 85mm Jupiter mentioned earlier is the Jupiter-9, which was made in both M39 and M42 (Contax?) mount. I heard that as typical with FSU lenses, the quality is good but the quality control was iffy so you may get a great one, or you may get one with "issues". </p>

[35mmdelux]

<p>Looks excellent. Maybe I'll sell my MP and get a FED!</p>

[Uhooru]

<p>Sweet!</p>

[davebell]

<p>Thanks for replies thus far. Stephen, this was shot at F8, 1/500. It was the first time I tried the lens and didn't have an opportunity to try any smaller apertures as we had a remarkably warm and sunny day in London, unusual. I will try some lower light shots at wider apertures soon and let you know how it goes. F8 is probably the perfect aperture for this lens, being 3 stops below max aperture. But even at F8, it beats my Jupiter 8 which I thought was good - which in fairness it it but this is just a lot better. The J8 has a 1 stop advantage, F2 vs F2.8, which can count for a lot in low light. Next stop will be an M8.2 and a nice 50mm summicron one day when I have some money....</p>

[davebell]

<p>correction in above post - "smaller apertures", should read "wider apertures"!</p>

[02Pete]

<p>Composition, focus, exposure, use of aperture to control depth of field, and so on are not dependent upon the use of big-ticket items. If one learns the basics of those and related techniques, and has a modicum of creativity, one can do a great deal with basic equipment. Even when equipment has limitations, one can identify them and then learn to work around them, or in some cases even figure out how to use them to beneficial effect. It can be rather satisfying to take pictures worth saving, and sharing, with equipment that didn't cost an arm and a leg. The portrait posted at the top of this thread is a good example of this.</p>

 

[keith_page]

<p>Hey guy's, David's portrait tells the whole story: A real GREAT picture! and ain't that what photography should be all about ? Got myself a 135mm f4 lens for the Zorki and Fed, just this last w/e. Unable to decipher it's Russian model. Ran some tests at various apeartures and it it gives it's sweetest "portrait" at f8-f11. Closest focussing distance on this lens is 2.5 metres...so no tight portraits possible, plenty of cropping necessary. But sharpness and fingerprint of lens is great. I'm having such fun with my Fed and Zorki, both newly aquired ! Perhaps just me, I've used and have the best of other cameras and I find that getting excellent results from these cheepo Russian cameras is giving me the time of my life. What FUN !!<br>

Base part of an old Nikon F, ever-ready-case, fits the Fed just perfectly, and then you'll have nice carry strap. Makes one wonder why the Ruskies never fitted strap lugs to this "neat" camera?</p>

[lennert]

<p>Keith,<br>

Actualy, mine has strap lugs. If I remember well, only the oldest batch FED 2 came without strap lugs.</p><div></div>

[dan_b.4]

<p>Is there a half case available with strap lugs? My Kievs all came with two-piece cases although I never use them because the camera bodies have strap lugs.</p>

[rodrigo_pinto1]

<p>One taken with my industar-61 from the first B&W film that I developed (and the film is an ilford f4+ that ended in 1996)<br>

<img src="http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/2852/scan0008a.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[dave_green5]

<p>The thing that you have to remember is that living in Leica-land, you have an inherently skewed view of value for the dollar.</p>

<p>Nowadays, it's incredibly easy to to get a first rate 35mm film SLR and top notch 50mm lens for well under $50. With a little effort, $20-30 for a perfectly good manual focus 35mm SLR with a normal lens is routinely doable.</p>