Fed 5 Russian RF camera

This camera was a cosmetic redesign of the FED-4. Although there was very little change to the overall camera it looks much better than its' predecessor. The meter is very well integrated into the top deck with the rewind knob now in the center of the meter dial. The camera also has a hot shoe as well as a flash jack. The few variations existing, the export model and the 1980 Moscow Games.

Produced: 1977-1990

Development of the Fed-4 (b), but with specifications of the Fed-5B. Retractable rewind knob. Lens I-61L/D  2.8/55.

Black letters on the white face plate or vice versa. Different body coverings and nameplate markings.


Original price (in year 1986) 77 roubles.

The FED is a Soviet rangefinder camera, mass-produced from 1934 until around 1990, and also the name of the factory that made it.

FED is indirectly named after Felix Edmundovich Dzerzhinsky, founder of the Cheka. It was his name that was given to the labour commune at Kharkiv (Ukraine) whose manager, Anton Makarenko, encouraged a workshop education for indigent children and who decided to copy the Leica in 1932.

Large-scale production began in 1934, and in the same year the factory was put under NKVD control and Makarenko was fired. Production continued until 1941, when German forces destroyed the factory, and resumed in 1946.

Until 1955, the factory made a huge number of cameras that resemble the Leica rather closely (and are often altered, given 'Leica' markings, and sold as Leicas). However, the design is cruder: for example, the rangefinder cam is pointed and not circular as in Leicas. Other giveaways are the shape of the viewfinder window and FEDs have a gap at the left side of the accessory shoe. Also, screws on the front surface are always black - not chrome - on Leicas. Leicas also have film loading instructions on the inner surface of the baseplate. Shutter release button on FEDs is also different from Leicas. Beware also of fake Elmar lenses - recreated from Russian Industars. That said, the FEDs are interesting in their own right - often very well done and effective cameras - provided you don't pay Leica money for them.

From 1955, FED began to innovate, combining the rangefinder with the viewfinder in the FED 2 and all its successors. The FED-3 added slow shutter speeds and on the later version FED-3 (b) the film advance was changed from a thumbwheel to a lever. The FED 4 (1964–77) added a non-coupled selenium exposure meter. The FED 5 marked the end of the FED rangefinder family, and was meant as a replacement for both the FED-3 and FED-4 that were in production at the time of its introduction. There were versions of the FED-5: the original FED-5 had an exposure meter, the FED-5B was a cheaper version without meter, and the later FED-5C had reflected framelines showing field of view of 50mm lens and an exposure meter. All FED-5 cameras were delivered with an Industar I-61L/D lens. Production of FED rangefinder cameras ended in the mid 1990s (Fed-5 Serial Number 545446 was made on February 28, 1994; Fed's site claims that it was in fact 1997: "Start of serial production of vertical drive for control system of tanks. Production of all types of cameras has stopped. 8,647,000 cameras were manufactured since the beginning.”)