P3D FED BOY

[kiwi1957@xxxxxxxxxx]

I've been behind on reading all of the P3D emails. About a week or so ago,
someone asked about the FED BOY.

I have had a FED BOY since this past November, and I have found it to be
generally satisfactory with one curiosity: the meter. 

With Kodachrome 64 and Ektachrome 100 films, the meter gives excellent
exposures--just a *touch* underexposed, just the way I prefer slides. But
with 400 speed film, the camera consistently overexposes. Egads, perhaps by
about one stop. Those overexposed shots are very marginally tolerable, but
some were useless. (I normally wouldn't shoot 400 speed film anyway, but I
had some in the freezer so I used it.)

I understand that the 2.8 lenses are of a four-element design. The focus
scale is in meters and not feet, so that requires a minor bit of re-thinking
(probably useful thinking at that!) about what the distance in feet would
correspond to. 

While the camera does offer manual control, it is rather limited. In manual
mode--which was mostly intended for flash photography and time
exposures--you have one shutter speed and an array of f/stops and Bulb with
only f5.6 (I think).

Someone indicated that his FED's optics were comparable to his Nimslo's
optics, but my FED's optics are superior over my Nimslo's. I have yet to
discern any difference in focus between left and right lenses. Although I
haven't performed any resolution tests, I have subjectively found the
sharpness to be quite sharp. (Sorry, I can't quantify what "quite sharp"
is.)

Since I use only a hand viewer, I found the slip-in mounts to be
satisfactory. Although sometimes a little dicey to slip-in the 7P chips, I
have had *no* scratches or alignment problems at all with slip in mounts.
(I'm used to slipping in chips--I also shoot View Master.)





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