This Fed 3 is labelled Fed 2

[Michael Fraley]

Doesn't this look like a Fed 3? And yet it says Fed 2..

cgi.ebay.com/FED-2-Russian-Leica-Copy-Camera-EXC_W0QQitemZ380201536185QQcmdZViewItemQQptZFilm_Cameras?hash=item5885c70ab9

[photax]

This is definitely a FED 3. Never seen this "FED 2" version, amazing !
MIK

[seele]

According to the now gone site by Jim Blazik, this is actually classed as FED-2 (g), V-12. He wrote:

"The 'FED-3-looking' finale of the FED-2 line has occasionally been called the "FED-2(l)" --Nathan Dayton terms it so because that was what had been printed on the box of an example he has (or has seen?)-- but this designation is misleading in a sense because the "l" designation is more the result of the lens (the I-61 L/D) than it is a result of a logical progression of camera types. My example (pictured here) does not have that lens, but is instead fitted with the standard (i.e., non "L/D" rare earth lens) 'panda' I-61, and though I have neither the box the came in nor the passport papers that would originally have accompanied the camera, mine is typical of many of the examples one may encounter. All examples of this type are covered in nylon (gawd, I'd love to see one in vulcanite, but it simply isn't possible to swap out bodies of respective versions...), and all have advance levers and the FED-3 style v/f diopter adjustment on the rear eyepiece.

What's important, however, is that in all outward respects, the FED-2(g) is very obviously an entirely different camera than any of the previous versions of FED-2. Its so different, in fact, that some have considered the possibility that this final FED-2 may have been intended as a low-cost alternative to the (already well into production) FED-3 and/or that the 'g' was simply a means by which already existing shutter parts could be used up, but --as usual-- a closer examination of the internal structure (i.e., the body casting itself) reveals that neither is entirely the case. This may be seen in either of two ways. First, while many of the parts (the entire back/baseplate assy., the rangefinder parts, the wind lever assy., etc.) will interchange between this version of the -2 and the -3, there are significant differences between the body castings of the two, and so those at least are not interchangeable (differences required by the FED-3's slow speed mechanism attachment points and the lack of those features in the FED-2 make this so), so with two separate body castings being simultaneously produced, little cost effectiveness would be realized on that count. And lacking any knowledge of what may have been in the minds of the designers, I'd instead prefer to think they may have looked at the bigger picture with regard to long-range costs and effectiveness. By that, I mean that there is a robust elegance in the simplicity of the FED-2's shutter design, and while the designers may have felt it necessary to modernize by going to a slow speed arrangement --and thus better compete in the Soviet marketplace and elsewhere-- the design of the slow speed mechanism in the FED-3 is not without its faults and could conceiveably have been in something of a testing phase, at least initially. In effect, if practical use among purchasers of the -3 were to reveal these faults through breakdowns and costly returns and repairs, the tried and true rock-solid shutter of the FED-2 was concurrently available, and could thus be relied upon as a fall-back --and less expensive overall-- option.

Whatever the reasoning, in at least one regard, the FED-2(g) represents the loss of what might be among the greatest of strengths of the family: the decrease in effective r/f width is a reduction in focusing ability, and this is very certainly not an improvement.

Approximate serial number range:

818xxxx thru 910xxxx"

End quote.

[Deleted]

That is the last model of the FED 2--a transition model to the FED 3. I have one. I call it a FED 2L. Can't remember why. It's on my FED page.
www.zorki1c.com/camera/fedlist.html

Wayne

[photax]

Never seen this model before ( like many of us i have several FED-2 and FED-3 versions in my collection ), thanks for the interesting story.

MIK

[Michael Fraley]

Thanks everyone. So it wasn't a bogus item! Now I want one...