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The FED-5 (often marked in cyrillic, with several variations of font, ФЭД 5 {upper-case} or фэд 5 {lower-case}) is a 35mm rangefinder camera produced by the FED factory in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv from 1977 until 1996.

The FED-5 is an updated FED-4, with cleaner lines to the top, a pop-up rewind knob in place of the thumb-wheel, a hot shoe, restyled film reminder/frame counter and meter rings, and the meter scale repositioned and converted from a match-needle to an EV-scaled device where the user manually transfers the meter reading to the calculator.

There are 7 types and 10 sub-types of the FED-5 [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Specifications[]

  • Lens: standard lens Industar-61 L/D 53mm f/2.8 (ИНДУСТАР-61 Л/Д), interchangeable, 39mm Leica screw mount, filter size 40.5mm [6]
    • Aperture: f/2.8 - f /22 setting: ring and scale on the lens
    • Focus range: 1-20m +infinity
  • Focusing: matching yellow rangefinder images in the viewfinder
  • Shutter : rubberized silk double cloth curtain, horizontaly moving focal-plane shutter
    • Speeds: 1-1/500 +B [7]
  • Cocking lever: also winds the film, short stroke, retractable, on the right of the top plate
  • Frame counter: coupled with the cocking lever, advance type, auto-resets
  • Viewfinder: coupled viewfinder/rangefinder, w/ Diopter correction ring, around eyepiece
  • Exposure meter: uncoupled Selenium cell sensor, metering by a needle window on the top-plate
  • Exposure setting: Set the film speed on the large dial. Even though the speeds on the dial are in GOST, just set the ASA value; Point the camera to the scene you want to photograph; Look through the light meter window to see which number the needle indicates; Turn the light meter dial until the silver number underneath corresponds with the number from needle window; Read off the suitable shutter speed and aperture combinations and set the camera accordingly
  • Re-winding : a pop-up small chrome knob at the centre of the exposure / ASA(GOST) setting dial, push and turn to left for pop-up
  • Self-timer: activates with a small knob above it
  • Flash PC sync socket, flash sync up to 1/30s
  • Hot-shoe
  • Memory dial: on the knob of the cocking lever
  • Back cover: removable with the bottom plate, opens by two pop-up semi-circle levers on the bottom plate
  • Tripod socket: 1/4"
  • Engravings on the back of the top plate: СДЕЛАНО В СССР ( SDELANO V SSSR = MADE IN USSR)
  • Weight: 720g

Related models[]

FED-5v/5b (1975-1996) Cyrillic В в = V v in Latin. Similar to the FED-5 but without light meter.

FED-5c/5s (1977-1996) Cyrillic С с = S s in Latin. An economy model of the FED-5, without diopter adjustment, but with a bright-line non parallax corrected finder.

Notes and references[]

  1. As to Alexander Komarov in Fotoua You can also find serial numbers for dating of the cameras in this site
  2. Another classification of FED-5 in Aidas Pikiotas' Sovietcams
  3. There are usefull books about cameras of former USSR and have classifications also.
  4. Pages from the the book of former USSR cameras by Suglob, Shaternik, Kochergin
  5. Discussion about clasifications in the books of Princelle and Suglob, Shaternik, Kochergin in USSR Photo Forum
  6. The "L" stands for Lanthane, glass coating of the lens. Lanthane is apparently a radioactive element, but its level is very low and harmless for humans, when measured with a radiation meter, the actual radiation given off by these lens is less than the background radiation. The FED-5 was known in western community with Radioactive FED. The "D" stands for "dalnomernaya", which means "rangefinder type".
  7. As with other Soviet-era rangefinders, the shutter-speed selector rotates when the shutter is released, and this should not be changed until after the shutter has been cocked. If you change the shutter speed before you cock the shutter first, the setting pin can be broken when you advance the film and cock the shutter.

Links[]


FED cameras
Rangefinder FED | FED-1 | FED NKVD | FED-S | FED-2 | FED-3 | FED-4 | FED-5 | FED-5s | FED-5v | FED-6 TTL | FED-10 | FED-11 Atlas | FED-35 | FED-35A | FED Mikron-2 | TSVVS

Viewfinder FED Zarya | FED Mikron | FED 50

Stereo FED Boy Stereo | FED Stereo | FED Stereo-M

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