Pass the RF - part 3 - UPDATE

Philipp reports back! The travelling FED-2 might be on its way again some day soon! :)

Tashkent is an excellent place for picking up FSU cameras - good choice, and prices are still comparatively low! I've picked up a number of cameras on Friday, all but one of which will be sent away (read _this thread_ for my enthusiasm about the one that won't... ;))

The new FED-2 looks good. It has its little stiffnesses, but Spyderman already wrote that he can take care of that, so RML put the list together in this order rather prophetically :) I've just finished a roll of XP2 and will give that to the lab tomorrow, to see how camera and lens are doing.

However, to top it off I got a call five minutes ago from my Armenian collector-salesman, who says that he'll get another beautiful like-new FED-2 in the course of this week - this man clearly knows about gear acquisition syndrome. So eventually I might even have two FED-2s to choose from... I might be going to the mountains next weekend, so there might be some more pictures coming, and I hope I can get the nicer of both in a yak string, brown paper package on its way to Slovakia early next week or so. :)

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Pass the RF - part 3 - UPDATE

As you know, the travelling FED-2 got stolen in Tashkent but it seems Philipp has been able to find a replacement camera, also in Tashkent. :)

OK, here's an update. I spent some two hours today drinking tea and chatting with my Armenian contact here, time very well spent. I've got an offer for three cameras. The first is a Drug for myself, serial number 6102830, looks mint, with leather case and a beautiful J-8 (for $60). The second is a Zorki-5, the model with square window and red engraving, serial number 5816836, with an I-50 for Spyderman. The third is the next Pass-the-RF camera, a FED-2 with self timer, serial number 3446293, with an Industar-26 52/2.8 lens. Quite similar to the original camera, with self-timer added, and the camera looks in nice shape. I have to tell him tomorrow if I'll take the cameras, but I probably will.

He deals in cameras and has a nice collection. We chatted a bit and I saw a few things I hadn't seen before. There were some spy cameras (my favourite was built into a 1980s digital wristwatch, takes round film chips with 1 inch diameter and comes with a small suitcase with a complete development kit), a Narciss (subminiature SLR with interchangeable lenses and finder, very nice) and a TSVVS (#377, I don't know how genuine it was, but it definitely did look nice and if it was a fake, it was a good one). If anyone of the RFF crowd ever comes to Tashkent, this is a guy worth visiting. It helps if you speak a little Russian, though

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Pass the RF - part 3 - UPDATE

Our busy friend Pherdinand has seen time to scan a bit and posted the following photo. I love it, Csab'.

(c) Csaba Jozsa.
Fed-2
Industar I-26m 52/2.8

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Pass the RF - part 3 - UPDATE

And the unfortunate travelling FED's story continued....

Hi,

so here's a little update from dusty and hot Tashkent. I've been to Yangiobod flea market today looking at cameras; there were about four FED-2s, several Zorki-4s (one of them an rather obviously fake "50 Years of the Soviet Union" model), several FED-5s, a Zorki-1, a Zorki-6, and a number of Kievs and Zenits. So it's no problem getting a camera. Many of the cameras on display are in rather bad shape (dirty bodies, wrinkled shutter curtains from lying in the sun at 35 degrees every weekend, ...) so there was nothing that I would have bought right away, but I've got a couple of phone numbers. Incidentally, if any of you needs a bust of Lenin or a wall carpet with "Proletarians unite" embroidered on it in Uzbek, this is the place to go.

I met the Armenian guy again from whom I bought my Kiev-88, he amazingly enough recognised me after three years and we got into chatting about rangefinders and he mentioned that he had a FED-2 and a couple of Zorkies in good shape at home as well as a Drug in like new condition (he says). On display he had a FED-10 (first time I saw that in the flesh), a couple of Zenits and binoculars and a Sverdlovsk-4 meter. He discouraged me from the late Zorkies, saying that their wind mechanism is "capricious" and that the older, simpler ones are the most reliable. Hmm. I don't know his price ideas yet, the Kiev 88 back then was pretty reasonable at $150 for the whole kit, but then times have changed and I've got to see the camera anyway. However, he seems to know his stuff and I've good experience with a camera from him. So I've got his phone number, too, and will visit him in the course of this week.

I can of course just buy the Drug and ship it round. Or another FED-2 for that matter. But it would be good to have feedback from Remy and RFF on that.

Philipp

Philipp emailed me to ask what to do. I suggested that if he can find a FED-2 (or a Zorki, as I don't have one yet :) ) in Tashkent, he get it, shoot it and send it on its way again. I'm too curious to see the photos from Tashkent. :)

Philipp, good luck! I know things will turn out right for the camera. I just hope you are OK. That's what matters most.

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Pass the RF - part 3 - UPDATE

Update time again! I've been out-of-office for a while and in the meantime a few things happened to the travelling FED-2! Ready? Here it goes, quoted straight from Philipp's entry in the travelling Fed's thread on the rangefinderforum....

I've got some BAD NEWS for this project. While shopping (and photographing) on Chorsu bazaar here in Tashkent I had my bag stolen with the FED in it (and some other mildly important stuff, but that doesn't matter in this context). So the camera and the roll of film I had in there are now in the hands of an unknown guy somewhere in Uzbekistan (who's probably bothered and had hoped for more). This irks me a lot.

Now in order to get this thing going again, we need to get a new camera in circulation, and I think it's my responsibility to do so. Basically I have three options:

Option A is that Tashkent has a huge Sunday flea market where people sell all sorts of Soviet stuff. There is usually a guy or two selling cameras, I bought my Kiev 88 there from an Armenian guy for a very reasonable price. I can go there on Sunday and try to get a replacement FSU rangefinder, but I can't guarantee it's going to be a FED-2. (Incidentally, the FED-2 is a great camera.)

Option B is that the next guy on the list is Ondrej in Bratislava. In Slovakia it should be possible to get an FSU camera relatively easy, so we could skip the shipping from here and just continue with the next guy on the list. Maybe Ondrej could look for a replacement camera and I can try to wire him the money via Western Union or PayPal. (I can't do international money orders from here, unfortunately.)

Option C is that I ask my beautiful wife at home in Berlin to send my own Canonet GIII QL17 to Ondrej. Not an FSU camera, though. I would have her send my Zorki-6, but that one eats film.

Since I wanted to go to the flea market anyway, if we don't reach a consensus until Sunday I think I'll just go for option A, and if there is no suitable camera we can still think about something else. Let me hear what you think!

Philipp (This Pass-the-RF turns into a real adventure...)

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