alan_mcwhirter

<p>I just found the following informative site - http://members.myactv.net/~je245/leica2nc.htm<br>

The issue of lens rotation that I have described is mentioned under the FED-1f heading in the article. This article says that the lens registration is definitely the Leica standard 28.8mm (good to have this confirmed) but this variant still gives a rotational offset with a Leica standard lens. The offset issue was apparently fixed in the ensuing type 1g, easily identified by the mushroom-shaped release button surround.</p>

<p>All very interesting. I can confirm that the lens fited to my FED-1 is not coated. As I said, the lens from my 1955 FED-2 is coated, reflecting blue. I am hoping that the register for the FED-1 is 28.80mm so that I can use my Jupiter lenses with this camera, albeit I will have to turn the camera around to view the red index mark on the lenses which will be a the 9 o'clock position. I'll shoot a test film using the original lens and also all my Jupiter type lenses and report back once developed.</p>

<p>Nicolas, I think I follow your argument - but I just found the 'Sovietcams' FED-1 page at http://www.sovietcams.com/index.php?-149094172. This shows a photo of the 'F3' version which looks exactly the same as mine and has a serial number range consistent with mine. You will notice that the lens has a focus button design which mirrors that of the (older-style) shutter release button and also, surprisingly, that the aperture stop designations are of the older version. This is exactly what I have on my camera. I could conclude that this early 1950's camera reverted to the older lens design for some reason. This lens must surely have the 28.80mm register. </p>

<p>Apologies for an error in my last entry : When using the later FED-50 lens from my FED-2, the viewfinder is partly obscured by the focusing lever when set to the closest focus position (1m) and not when set to infinity focus position as I said.</p>

<p>Thanks to all for the input so far. I just removed the lens mount ring and there is indeed a sizeable cutout (normally unseen) on the underside of the ring at the 12 o'clock position. This appears to be there to allow the rangefinder arm to come fully forward. As such the lens mount ring cannot be rotated 90 degrees without requiring to be modified. Note : this cutout is not to be confused with the thin notch which is normally visible on the outside perimiter of the ring at the 9 o'clock position as I mentioned ealier. Further to all this, I am now really confused beacase I actually have a second FED-50 lens from a FED-2, ser no. 180696 (C1955) which is coated (the one which came with the FED-1, ser no. 6844, appears to be uncoated). When I fit this other lens to the FED-1 its infinity mark is situated below the viewfinder window so that the focus lever partly obscures the window when at the infinity position! The original FED-1 lens when fitted to the FED-1 has the infinity mark at about the 3 o'clock position so it's OK. The engraving on the front of both these lenses is identical as "FED 1 1:3,5 F-50mm" although the aperture scale on the later lens from the FED-2 is the normal 3.5, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16 progression as opposed to 3.5, 4.5, 6.5, 9, 12.5, 18 on the FED-1 lens. Can anyone explain why there are 2 variants of this lens? Obviously the one which came with the FED-1 is correct as the viewfinder does not get obscured by the focus lever.</p>

<p>I have bought a good FED-1 camera, type F3, serial no. 237972 (C1950?) which has its original FED-50 lens fitted. I understand this camera uses the normal 28.8mm lens standoff distance so that I can use any of my Jupiter lenses (J-8, J3 or J-12) with this camera. When I fit any of the above lenses, the reference (index) mark on the lens, for focus distance and aperture, is displaced by a 1/4 turn anti-clockwise (i.e. at the 9 0'clock position looking onto the lens). I noticed there is a narrow notch cut on the outer perimiter of the camera lens mount ring at the 9 o'clock position. Is there any reason why I cannot remove and rotate the lens mount ring 1/4 turn clockwise so that the notch is then at the 12 0'clock position? - then the index mark on all my Jupiter lenses (and my Industar-22 & Industar-61L/D) will also be at this 'normal' position - which would make using the camera very much easier when using these lenses. I have no plans to use the original FED-50mm lens which uses older 'non-standard' f-stop markings (e.g. f3.5, f6.3, f12.5, f18 etc).</p>

<p>I finally got the test film developed and found that the modification had worked perfectly, with all frames now exactly centred between the 2 lines of sprocket holes - perfect prints obtained.<br />To summarise, the fix was to remove the 2 large spacing washers above the rewind fork (an easy job) and then to fit a nylon washer (doesn't have to be nylon) between the bottom of the standard 135 film cassette and the latch below. Washer dimensions were 1.7mm thick, 12.5mm outer diameter with a central hole to fit over the (3mm diameter) centre pin on the latch. This thickness of washer completely filled the gap below the film cassette, so holding the cassette upwards in the correct position. Fixed! I can now glue the washer onto the latch with a thin film of superglue to make this a permanent modification. As Tonu says, the coil spring which I fitted under the takeup spool was not necessary as this spool simply captures the film as it is fed off the sprockets. I'm sure this simple fix could be used for any other camera with the same kind of problem e.g. FED1, 2 etc although the washer dimensions may be different.</p>

<p>Good point about the takeup spool. I may remove this spring once I've shot this film. I'll try and find a suitably sized coil spring to support the film spool because I can't find any source of the leaf spring which is missing from the LH latch assembly. Can anyone help with sourcing this vital component?</p>

<p>This modification unfortunately made no difference. I have started a new thread on this topic and I am now trying a couple of home-spun modifications - please refer to :<br>

<a href="http://www.photo.net/leica-rangefinders-forum/00UtsF">http://www.photo.net/leica-rangefinders-forum/00UtsF</a></p>

<p>I have now come up with a couple of modifications which I hope will solve this problem. For the takeup spool I fitted a 10mm diameter light coil spring to the bottom (threaded) collar of the spool. I trimmed the spring so it protrudes by approx. 4mm. The protruding end of the spring fits into the well on the RH latch and applies light upwards pressure which holds the spool upwards in its correct position. A very thin nylon washer placed over the central pin of the latch acts a bearing for the bottom of the spring. For the film spool I couldn't find a suitably sized coil spring to do the same thing so I fitted a 1.7mm thick 12.5mm diameter nylon washer into the well of the LH latch. This happens to exactly fill the gap between the well in the latch and the bottom of the film spool but still allows a working clearance so the spool can rotate freely. It all seems to run smoothly. I guess I'll have to wait for the photos to see if this has done the trick. Watch this space.....</p>

<p>Tonu, thanks for this useful reply and the photo. Is the leaf spring seen on the left-hand latch an original part of this camera or did you fit this yourself? I just realised that my camera does not have this spring which could have a lot to do with my problem!! If it were in place I'm sure this would stop the film spool moving downwards.</p>

<p>I have already read the thread you refer to and I made a comment at the end that I had removed the two flat washers situated above the rewind fork to see whether this would help. The result was that this made absolutely no difference to the problem. I started this new thread as I believe there is something else (maybe several things) wrong here. I will now try your suggestion of bending up the spring on the backplate latch to see if I can get the film spool to stay in its proper place i.e. hard up against the top of the camera body so that the film runs true between the guide rails.</p>

<p>I have recently bought a 1957 Zorki-4 which works extremely well except for one very annoying fault - the film does not run true within the guide rails, so leaving a dark slanting band along the top of each print due to the spools dropping downwards - as far as I can work out. Upon close investigation I found two surprising things; 1. A standard modern 35mm spool rattles up and down inside the camera if the camera is gently shaken (film fully retracted into the cassette for this test). 2. The takeup spool does the same! It is not therefore surprising that during use the film drops downwards off its guide rail so that the exposed frame virtually encroaches on the sprocket holes at the top of the film. I notice that the original takeup spool has a thread cut on the outside of the bottom part - is there some kind of screw-on spacer missing from here, allowing the spool to fall downwards inside the camera, instead of being tightly located between the top of the camera body and the rotating latch in the base of the rear cover? As for the film cassette, I can only assume that it is shorter than the original Zorki reloadable cassette which of course is now obsolete. I am confused - can anyone advise me as to exactly what the problem(s) is here and how it can be fixed so my film runs true within its guide rail? Thanks!!</p>

<p>I have had exactly this problem on my otherwise excellent 1957 Zorki-4. All 4 spools I have so far run through show the same problem - a slanting black line at the top of the photo (which gets bigger going from left to right). I removed the 2 spacing washers (total thickness of 0.6mm) above the film cartridge and the film now seems to run correctly betwen the rails. Watch this space for the result.</p>