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Julian Tanase Photography

My Minox journey continues…

FED 5B – the Soviet brick with a lens

FED 5B – the Soviet brick with a lens

Bought this camera in 1982, while traveling in the USSR as a (very) young sportsman. The shop was near the Krasnaya Ploschatka (Red Square), in Moscow. I remember this because I could see the towers of Kremlin from the shop’s windows. Actually, the photographic supplies shop was part of a huge mall, which the Russians themselves call UniverMag. Huge, huge building, with many shops organized on several floors. For me, coming from the socialist Romania, it was a sight to behold. I paid some good chunk of my pocket money, recently changed into rubles. The price was something like 50 USD or thereabouts, very steep a price for me at that time.

The scarcity of everything in Romania during those years meant that we were extremely amazed to see stuff in the Soviet shops, stuff that we never seen in our own country. We always thought that if something cannot be found in Romania, then it cannot be found anywhere in the Communist territories. We were wrong, so very wrong. Later on in my sporting career, visiting most of the countries behind the Iron Curtain, I realized that the worse type of socialism was the Romanian one. Anyways, I digress.

There’s no two ways of saying this: the camera is a brick, both in shape, feel and weight. Heavy, chunky, but solid as a boulder, and therefore, providing certain assurance when held and used. To be honest, I am certain there is a country out there in the world where handling this chunk of metal is illegal. If you add to this the fact that you never know what is the quality of the camera unless you buy and try, this makes a very good reason for someone to ask me: why the heck did you spent your money on it then? Sorry, next question, pls.

Production of this model started in 1975 and stopped in 1990, so it had quite a long run. The Russian inscription on the front plate: ФЭД-5b. Produced in the FED factories in Kharkiv, currently a city in Ukraine (formerly known as Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine). 

The camera takes 35mm film negative, frame size 24×36, in regular cassettes. Lens is Industar 61L/d, with a 2.8/53 focal. Film is advanced by means of a top lever, and shutter speeds are selected and set prior to film advancement (and to cocking the shutter). Speeds are from 1s to 1/500 plus B, with intermediary speeds of 1/2, 1/4, 1/15, 1/60, 1/125, 1/250 of a second. The release button is threaded, and a cold shoe is attached on the top plate.

Focusing is by means of a rangefinder beam, because this camera is a rangefinder, make no mistake. As far as  this camera is concerned, the rangefinder is excellent and accurate. Loading the camera is done in Leica-like fashion: unlock the back plate, insert the film, fiddle with it to have it flush in the camera, close the backplate.

One has to be careful when setting the shutter speeds, for the positions where the shutter locks are very narrow and one could get the speed wrong just by not paying attention when setting the numbers.

All in all, a chunk of a camera. Reliable? To a certain extent, yes; just make sure you test it first with some film, and in the same time get used to the quirks of this piece of Soviet technology. If you’re in luck (i,e. you got a working camera), you will be surprised at how good the lens is, and how nice the photographs are.

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