P3D Re: PHOTO-3D digest 2789

["mikael.anjou@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <mikael.anjou@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Trent Schindler
asked a few questions about the FED camera. I am no expert, I am no
businessman, but I have been a FED user for some time. First: the lenses
are 38 mm Tessar-type although their name is Industar 81. They are not
better or worse than other copies of the famous original.  For a user they
are very sharp and can be opened to 2.8 and stopped down to 11 or 16,
depending on FED model.
Exposure is very different from the Realist (wich, I must admit, is a more
logic machine).
You can select A, wich is a programme setting: you do not know what f stop
the camera intends to use, a serious drawback for the person that wants to
plan the DOF in her pictures. Neither do you know the shutter time, but
that is a minor problem in comparison, because the A setting does not work
under dim light conditions.
Then how can I control depth of focus in my pictures? By using the manual f
stop settings, 2.8 to 11 or 16. The shutter then always runs a 1/30 sec. In
this case you have no use of the built-in meter. Is it too dark? Then use
the B setting, but now the camera opens the lenses to f2.8 (except on the
FED BOY, where it stops down to the more useful  f5.6. Again, the meter
does not work in B setting.
 I have so far discovered tree models, some of them can be either black or
chrome.
The Standard model can be stopped down to f16, the two others to 11 only.
The camera is produced in a Kiev (Ukraine) factory that has made Leica
imitations since the early thirties. This affects only the general form,
not the quality of work. In fact it looks and feels cheap.
The model M is slightly better. The wheel wich sets the ASA number for the
built-in light meter has a little more friction, wich prevents it from
unintended settings. The same appears on the  focusing mechanism. These
friction additions are also present in the FED BOY.
A fourth model named VRN Stereo has a little flash connection cable, the
FEDs hot shoe only.

Many things in these cameras are frustrating. Nevertheless, I have used a
Standard and a Boy with convincing results. You set exposure with one
finger, focus and shoot. Do not misunderstand, the Realist is as good as
people on this list use to claim (I also use one, guided by a huge Gossen
light meter) but when I look at my slides, I prefer the ones from a FED,
taken usually in A setting. The piece of junk takes wonderful pictures!
I would love to hear from somebody who has compared the FED lenses to that
of the East German Belplasca (made in the fifties, now used, still three
times more expensive than a good FED as the M you asked about). Both are
European in format and extraction.

There is a company in Prague that sells FED cameras for 140 to 260 dollars.
You can visit their homepage: http://www.dedal.cz/Ca_3D_EN.html

Good luck, Trent, whatever camera you use!
Mikael Anjou,
Sweden,
Europe



------------------------------