P3D Re: FED stereo

["John A. Stuart" <jastuart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

First of all, re:

<How does one post messages on PHOTO-3D? Thanks.>

That was easy enough. :)

I bought a FedBoy a couple months back on ebay from a guy who sells
under the name lemiu. He's from California (with a very Russian real
name) and sells predominantly new or recently new Russian cameras. At
one point, he had a dozen or so FedBoys scattered on Dutch auctions at
$139. They were boxed and essentially new and I didn't see the price as
that bad, so I bought one. The transaction was quick, professional and
went very well. The camera and accessories were as described, so I would
consider him a reliable dealer. I didn't ask about any return policy
(which is likely to be important if you're buying a Kiev camera).

I bought the FedBoy because I was looking for a user stereo camera that
was relatively inexpensive and essentially automatic for times when I
didn't want to lug my light meter around. A review in an old StereoWorld
said it had good lenses and functioned well, though the exposures were
slow by one stop and a small vertical adjustment needed to be made with
one film chip on mounting.

I shot my first roll and found it had good lenses and functioned well,
though the exposures were slow by one stop and a small vertical
adjustment needed to be made with one film chip on mounting (that's what
I like, no surprises). These problems were easily solved by putting the
ASA setting one stop lower and the chips mounted well using a modified
RBT jig to make a .2mm (I think that's the right measurement) vertical
adjustment in one chip.

I've had no trouble with the advance mechanism. Some things are done
cheaply, though. I don't like the way the back attaches, but it's
adequate. There is no way to focus through the viewfinder, so you need
to guess on the distance with close photographs. To me, the biggest
limitation is, when in the automatic mode, it sets itself at a
relatively low f-stop so you have depth of field problems (foreground
out of focus) when set at infinity.  Also, how the straps work on the
camera bag is a complete mystery to me.

All in all, I think it takes good images, one just has to accept some
limitations if it's going to be used as your primary camera.

John