The Film Retriever

The old lady who sold me this camera said that it was her daughter's and she hadn't used it at all. I believed her as the camera seems to be in mint condition. The wind lever is so smooth to operate, and the body clean and shinny.This was mostly a compulsive buy, i saw it in good condition and the price she was asking was right, so i said "why not". It is a really good camera and i wouldn't hesitate to recommend it as a first time rangefinder. The viewfinder is a bit dark but the focusing patch is quite clear to see and easy to operate. A cloth shutter with speed ranges of 1 sec to 1/500 in a bit unusual arrangement. The lens on this camera is a very nice Industar-61, f/2.8 to f/16, coated and very sharp. It also works on my Leica IIc. A nice feature of the Fed-4 is the lack of light seals. It uses the old good Leica drop in loading ( * Correction 31/8/2010 - Drop in loading??? I have no idea what i was thinking when i was writing it, the whole back is removable i...

This camera was my birthday present a few years ago but since developing 120 film format in this area is something of a science fiction, i didn't have the chance to test this camera for a long time. But now I've got everything i need to develop and scan my pictures so here is a short review about this wonderful camera. This is a very well build camera. The moment you hold it in your hands, you know that the engineers in Zeiss did not save on metal. The viewfinder is reasonably bright and all the controls are smooth in my sample. A common problem with this camera is the focusing knob that can become stiff because of the dry lubricants. I am lucky, mine focuses smoothly and the wheel to set the speeds rotates without any resistance. Before you start using the camera, you need to read the manual. Really, there is no way you will manage to figure out how to load the film is you don't read the manual. After you practice it a couple of times, it becomes sort of obvious b...

I got this camera on a car boot sale for 10 pence. The seller said that it wasn't working and true, i couldn't trip the shutter although (according to the seller) there was a fresh battery in. I removed the top part and below the shutter button laid the problem. Be very careful when you take it off, there is a tiny little metal ball that keeps the clamshell open and it is really easy to lose. There is a metal part in the shape of "H" that was not making adequate contact. Took it off, washed it with vinegar and bent it a bit to make more contact and it was working again. It seems that this is a common problem with all XA series but still it is very easy to repair. The clamshell design is good - really good actually. When you close it it resets the switch on the left that adjust the focus. Very clever. The lens is a Zuiko 35 f/3.5 which is a quite sharp lens but it vignettes. Sometimes too much for my liking. Here are a couple of pictures to show you what i mean. ...