FED-3b

Here is a pic of my FED-3b that I bought on eBay for 25.00 + shipping from Ukraine. It's got the Industar 61 L/D lens on it, which is a very sharp & slightly radioactive 52mm/2.8 lens made as a Soviet replacement for the German made Leitz Tessar type lenses. The Soviets banned camera imports from Germany (understandably) during World War II and started producing their own natively made derivatives. After the war, Soviet Camera makers had become well established, and started coming out with their own designs. The FED-3 is a result of this newfound industry's strides into the world of Lieca type rangefinder cameras. I think it's a pretty good cam, with the one outstanding exception being it's rediculously dim, small viewfinder, which has sharp ridges around it which scratch your glasses. It's a good thing it features diopter correction, so they aren't needed anyway. I like the blue color, it's pretty unique for a Sov-cam to have this bright a shade of blue. It almost looks modern. I have even been asked questions like "Is that digital?". Pretty good for being nearly a 40 year old design.