[photo-3d] Re: wirgin and fed

[jastuart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Mike,

I emailed this reply (since made a couple changes) to Darren re my 
experience with the FedBoy, sorry should have posted it.


I bought my FedBoy on ebay earlier this year for about $130. I got it 
because I wanted a stereo camera with a wide horizontal image. With
so many people now selling these things, I feel at some point the 
price will probably go even lower. Bought from an ebay seller named 
lemiu. He's from California with a very Russian real name. He sells a 
huge volume of new Russian cameras with a great selling record on 
ebay, and I felt he was trustworthy. I didn't want the unknowns of a 
transaction in the Ukraine.

The camera came complete, with battery, case and an undeciferable 
German manual. If you take it for what it is, a new user stereo
camera made with at least 25 year old Soviet technology, it's a
decent 
camera.

StereoWorld reviewed this camera a few years back with generally good
feelings about it and a couple querky things to note: one film chip 
vertically registers a little higher then the other, and the
exposures are about one stop too slow. I found this to be the case. I 
use an RBT mounting jig and spicer mounts so the discrepancy between 
the chips is not a big deal. And when using ASA 64 Kodachrome film, I 
set the ASA setting one stop slower at 50 and the exposures turn out 
fine. Works out fine, just need bright light levels with slow speed 
film.

The 7 sprocket images are actually quite good; nice sharp exposures 
and excellent color rendition. The camera works consistently. I like 
the film advance mechanism and the images are always perfectly
spaced. It's not as "hardy" a camera as a Realist or Revere, but time 
will tell how it wears. Also, other vintage 7 sproket cameras run
3-4+ 
times as expensive as the FedBoy, so it is an affordable option to 
getting a larger image then the Realist.

Now for things with the camera that could be better. I don't like the 
camera back, pretty cheaply made, though I've not had any light
leaks. There's no rangefinder, so you have to estimate and set the 
focus manually, but the focus appears accurate. The manual f stop 
settings allow various f stop choices, but fire off at only one fixed 
shutter speed of 1/30th sec (pretty slow and limiting). The automatic 
setting actually works pretty well with consistent exposures. They
say that it will fire off as fast as about 1/520th sec. I've just 
found that, more often then not in the automatic mode, it will fire
at 
an open f stop (f 3.5 -5.6), unless there are very bright light 
levels. This means you lose some depth of field in the automatic mode 
when focused at infinity (near objects need to be further then 10-15 
ft to be in focus). That can get annoying and limits my use of the 
camera in certain situations. There's probably way to change this 
(other then setting the focus at something less then infinity), but I 
just don't know how.

I will say I'm not going to throw away my Revere, but the FedBoy
gives a nice clean image in that wider format which is real nice to 
have.

Hope this helps.

John