Interesting web site

[kiev4a]

Just bumped int this. I guess it isn't gospel as anyone can add info.

www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

[olroy2044]

Wayne: Went to that site and got trapped! Lot'sa stuff to look at Bookmarked it for when I don't have to go back to work tonite Thanx for the link Roy

[herron]

It is an interesting place, but you're right, Wayne. Don't take anything there as gospel. Anyone can submit info on a wikipedia-run site. Nice idea, but open to all sorts of misinformation being spread around. I once found a page that was not only giving wrong data about Mamiya 35mm cameras, but was using MY pictures, lifted from my web site, to boot!

I corrected the data and removed the pictures...but have not been back to see if it stayed that way.

[kiev4a]

I added some links to my FED and Zorki pages. They have some old bad links there. Jim Blazik's Soviet camera site no loger exists.

[PeterW]

Wayne:
If I remember rightly Jim Blazik's web pages went offline around last January. There were postings about it in the BestStuff forum (I seem to remember you posted something) and Jim replied he scotched it as he was getting snowed under with emails asking questions or requesting repaints/repairs. Sadly the BestStuff forum seems to be falling apart, just a shadow of its former self when it first moved from Yahoo. Very few of the old regulars ever post now. I don't visit it very often.

For a short time Jim's website was in GeoCities archives and I took the opportunity to download it for my own enjoyment, but as Jim said that anyone can use the facts, but please don't republish the text I respected his wishes and took it off my computer. Otherwise I would have offered to host it for him as archive pages with his email address deleted. Last I heard, however, he'd lost all the copy, so it looks as if it really has gone for good. Pity.

On the subject of links, I notice you don't mention Stephen Rothery's site www.btinternet.com/~stowupland/index.htm
I only discoverd it fairly recently but find it interesting, particularly the pages about FEDI/Fedka - even though they may in part be slightly controversial. If you don't know it, give it a look.

PeterW

[doubs43]

Peter, thanks for the link to Rothery's site. I'll have a closer look at it when time permits but after a quick view of the page on the Russian Start camera, I already dispute his characterization of it as "very similar in design to the Exakta". There's some influence of the Exakta obvious in the Start but not as much as his statement would have us believe.

Walker

[mickeyobe]

Wayne,

Thanks for that info.
It looks like a very interesting site.
I have subscribed so I shouldn't run out of reading matter for a while.

Mickey

[PeterW]

Walker,
You'll probably find a lot more to dispute when you read Rothery's views on Oskar Barnack, the Leica and the Fedka, Leica shutter design and on German-Russian technical co-operation in the 1920s. Also, no mention of the Leitz-Leica thread mount having a Whitworth thread profile (LTM = Leica Trade Mark??).

I agree in part with what he says about bottom-loading a Leica/FED/Zorki, and I'm often amused by the tricks some people
advocate on the internet - poking a credit card in the back, taking the lens off and poking a finger down to guide the film etc, but I've never had any difficulty since I was shown how to do it back in the early 1960s by a German photographer who always cut his film from bulk, and cut the leader by eye with a pair of scissors, not a cutting template.

I'm not going to dismiss some of Rothery's views out of hand because that would be a rather blinkered view to take, but I'd be interested to know if he used primary or secondary (or even tertiary) sources for some of the information.

PeterW

[kiev4a]

I think the Idea that the Germans got the idea or the Leica from the FED has about as much credence as the theory than we never went to the moon--the landing were an earthbound theater production. I also have never heard a Russian or Ukrainian refer to the FED as a "FEDKA."

[doubs43]

Peter, I've taken a closer look at this fellow's site and I can only conclude that he's either trying to start an argument that he'd lose quickly or he's been smoking some illegal substance that has fried his brain! Just one example is his claim that the 1920's Leica would have been an "ideal" aerial camera for intelligence gathering and thus forbidden. The films available at that time were too slow and not capable of resolving detail fine enough to be of practical use for such a purpose IMO. Like you, I'd be interested in his sources.

The idea that the USSR developed a Leica-type camera before Barnack and that Barnack somehow copied their camera is nothing short of preposterous. The timelines for actual manufacture of the Soviet cameras is completely out of wack for that to be true.

My first Leica was purchased in 1970 from a flea market dealer..... a RD IIIf. I had Leitz in Wetzlar do a CLA on it in the Winter of 1971~1972 and I still have it. All film sold over the counter at that time had a Leica leader pre-cut. When I started to use bulk film, I cut my own leader and have always done it with sissors without the benefit of a template. I've never had a problem loading a Leica bottom loader and - just as you say - have never resorted to "tricks". Over on the Rangefinder Forum there is a permanent "How to Load A Bottom-Feeder" post that I submitted and it should be easy for anyone to follow. It's illustrated with pictures I took after the subject kept arising time and again. I think the degree of difficulty has become almost mythical in it's persistence. It's just not that hard to do!

Here's a link to the RFF post: www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22421

Walker

[kiev4a]

I have alway cut my own leaders for bottom feeders and viewed those who use plastic cards with contempt. But then I acquired a late FED 1 that was sent to me because the owner couldn't get film in it. I discovered I couldn't either--except using the plastic card method. I suppose I could open it up and try to figure out what's wrong but the camera takes such sharp photos once loaded that I hate to mess with it. I have done a complete check of the film path--from the bottom and the front with the shutter curtain open--and can find no sign of pieces of broken film or other obstructions. An interesting camera.

[doubs43]

kiev4a said:

I have alway cut my own leaders for bottom feeders and viewed those who use plastic cards with contempt. But then I acquired a late FED 1 that was sent to me because the owner couldn't get film in it. I discovered I couldn't either--except using the plastic card method. I suppose I could open it up and try to figure out what's wrong but the camera takes such sharp photos once loaded that I hate to mess with it. I have done a complete check of the film path--from the bottom and the front with the shutter curtain open--and can find no sign of pieces of broken film or other obstructions. An interesting camera.

Wayne, check the pressure plate to make sure it hasn't been put in up-side down. The bottom edge should be beveled to permit the film to slide by without hanging up.

Walker

[Reiska]

It is true, that the accuracy of the articles in Wiki is varying. There might be also mischievous or
purpose oriented infiltrating.
The idea is good but the control of the content is difficult. The linked sources of information
are often unreliable e.g. The Camera Site of Reijo Lauro. ;D

FEDKA is a nickname for FED, a cherishing-mode (Little-Fed)

Regards
Reijo

[TimH.]

Reading this rang a small bell in the back of my mind, so I checked, and I did indeed download Jim Blazik's site while it was sitting on Geocities, and I still have it. It's 7.6 MB altogether, so it'd be a hellish e-mail, but I guess I could burn it to a cd if anyone was interested, and if we figured he wouldn't mind. If he changed his mind about having it out there, I've got enough space to host it. Would it be worth asking him ?