My camera for the $50 camera project was FED 4. That actually cost me nothing because it was my mother’s father camera (but it costs 15,50 on ebay). It was given to him as a birthday present as engraved on the back of camera and it was laying on the shelf for ages. So it was my turn now to try it.
This is my first experience with film camera and I can’t describe how exited I am.
It is such a magical process. You get a brown film put it the camera where mechanics is so simple that you can actually see how it all works. And it is unbelievable! You simply let the light to flow on film and then later you give it to the lab (after 2 minutes of winding film back to the box because FED is not automatic), impatiently wait for it to be developed and who-a-la you get film where something can be actually seen. Some of the shots I seen I didn’t even remember taking! But it was one more day until I could see photos in a usual way – on my monitor because I went the lazy way and gave film to lab for a scan.
So as a project requires I will write a little description of FED camera. As many things were done in Soviet times, this camera is simply a copy of Leica. And FED is actually an abbreviation for name Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky (it must be cool to have camera named in your name, mine would be DVS which doesn’t sound as cool as FED, so I guess its a bad luck for me, nobody will want to name camera DVS).
I seen on internet that people say it is a Russian camera, but it is so wrong. It is actually Ukrainian because it was produced in the city where I live – Kharkiv and it is Ukraine now. Though it would be correct to call FED a Soviet camera, because it was produced in Soviet times. And the factory still exists.
So I have FED 4 which is better that FED 3 because it has exposure meter. But I was unlucky and my light meter was out of order. So I was using a weird solution – my digital camera as exposure meter and sometimes my intuition for the shutter speed settings (which didn’t bring good results mostly, so I am thinking of getting exposure meter separately).
Karen Nakamura has noted some interesting quirks which I noticed also:
When releasing the shutter, the shutter timing knob rotates clockwise. It lands in a seemingly random position. When you wind the camera, it cocks the shutter, the knob rotates again and thankfully lands in the right place again.
Don’t adjust the shutter speed without winding the camera! When changing to a slower shutter speed, rotate counter-clockwise. This will energize the slow-shutter speed mechanisms (you’ll feel them when you move from 1/60 to 1/15 and slower). For B and 1/30 sec (which is the X-sync speed), rotate clockwise.
My conclusion is that it is a pretty good reliable camera. As some people say it should work under extreme condition in snow and heat. If you don’t mind to carry half a kilo with you, than this is a nice camera for you. I have actually taken it with me on two weeks holiday to Thailand and sometimes felt that my bag is too heavy to carry it everywhere around. One of the things that i need to mention in this little review is that tripod mount is wider than standard and it didn’t fit my usual tripod. Also i heard that you need to be very careful with pointing it to the sun as it may burn a hole through shutter curtain.
I forgot to say anything about film that i have used. I am new to film photography so i have made a big mistake when i took my camera to Thailand, i didn’t bring any film with me. So i had to use what was there around (Kodak 200 iso) and this is why my photos are so noisy. Here are some photos made with FED on Fujifilm iso 200, the colors there seem to be brighter and photos are overall less grainy.
And finally here is my whole film that i am a bit afraid to show to everyone because it is full of mistakes and more than 10 photos from airplane window. Hey, it’s fully mechanical so i had no guilty making photos with it during landing. And with digital as they say you can’t, though everyone does… Well anyway i posted there all my film as it is, even no “digital room” tweaking so that you can see yourself what it is to see film for the first time from the lab.
So what is next? I got totally hooked on film now and my next experiment will be 6×6 film camera Reflecta. And i must warn you that film is dangerous, once you try it, it is difficult to come back to digital.
Hello Dash and good luck with your first blog!
I’ve got from my aunt my grandpa’s Fed 3. I was excited when aunt told me about Fed, but she didn’t mentioned a model number. I wished it to be Fed 4, but it was 3.
You lucky!
Nice review btw
Thank you, Dima
As i said, FED 3 is not much different from FED 4. The only difference is that FED 4 has exposure meter and FED 3 doesn’t.
Wow, interesting to se this from the FED 4
I myself used a Yashica J-7 (SLR) as a $50-dollar camera.
I’ve always wanted a FED and this review may just push me to the point of buying one!
“And i must warn you that film is dangerous, once you try it, it is difficult to come back to digital.”
AMEN!
Fun review. Good luck in the $50 Film Project!
I just noticed your blog. I think you took some good photos. Even with the ones on Picasa, You could definitely fix them up with photoshop.
I love my FED 5. Even though it’s heavy, I like the feel of the camera (if you think that’s heavy, I hear the Kiev 60 is like a tank). I’m surprised my light meter is still good (I think the camera was made in 1980).
Have you thought about developing your own black and white film? That’s when the real fun begins.
Good luck with your adventure with film!