FED2 - DIY VF/RF Service (long w/images)

Getting back, for a moment, to Laika's first post with the thumbnail of the two Fed bodies. I quite clearly have the later model. However, the later model top plate by the shutter release shows a "B" to "C", whereas the earlier model shows "n" to "c". But my late model shows "n" to "c". Otherwise everything about the design is clearly late model.

Ted
 
Laika, I just wandered into this thread and read from the start. Wonderful presentation. I have a FED 2C and it is hard to see through the RF. I guess next step is following your instructions.

There is an alternative to Micro Tools for the spanner and other tools. Ed Romney has a good selection as well as repair books and manuals. The spanners are at

http://www.edromney.com/
His home page is:

http://www.edromney.com/

His Spanners are less expensive than Micro's

Again, Laika thanks for the effort.

Michael :p
 
Hi, great thread. I would just like to add some info that I encountered when servicing the VF/RF of my Fed 2. If you remove the viewfinder prism for cleaning it is easy to replace it on a slightly different angle. This happened to me and after I reassembled the camera I could not adjust the rangefinder to infinity by quite a large amount. It took me a while to realise that the viewing prism was the problem. I would recommend setting the horizontal adjusting screw about midway, loosening the two screws holding the viewing prism, lock the lens on infinity and go outside and adjust the rangefinder to infinity by adjusting the angle of the viewing prism. After tightening the two screws again infinity will probably be off but should be easily adjustable with the horizontal adjustment screw. Hope this info is useful. :)
 
When doing this cleaning procedure to the fed 2, I urge you to try the finder with the diopter control and eyepiece left out. Slap it together and look through just to see if you like it- I have done this to one of my feds and it's amazing the difference in brightness with those elements gone. I can't remember now, but I had to make a baffle or something around the rewind shaft to make up for the missing lever..
Also since there's no eyepiece any more, there's dust to worry about, not that the fed is super-sealed to begin with.
 
Does anyone have a picture of what it looks like to adjust the cam on the back of the lens?
I'm a lens killer from way back and I'd like to get this right.

Thanks.:bang:

Laika said:
Last of all you need to check and adjust as required the RF on your camera. The basic adjustment is to remove the RF cover and using a small screwdriver rotate the inner RF lens until the vertical adjustment is correct in the viewfinder. Now set the lens to infinity and adjust the RF screw behind the cover screw (see image) until the RF shows correct infinity focus on an object in the distance (I use the moon:)), that’s the basic adjustment but it doesn’t take into account any variation in close focusing. To adjust a close focus error you need to adjust the cam that rests on the back of the lens as well. This is how I go about it (after setting infinity). I measure off 2M on a table and stand a book or video cassette case up to focus on, then check the lens reading, say it’s off by “X” amount. Now with my padded jaw pliers turn the cam in one direction a small amount (sorry I forget which way does what at the mo), now you must reset the infinity focus again (it will have changed), now recheck the close focus again, at this point you will know if you turned the cam in the right direction or not. Now repeat this process over and over until both the close focus and infinity are correct…. Done.

Note the different shaped cams: the pie shaped of the later models and the tear drop shape of the early models.

Phew :p
Click to expand...
 
Hello Laika,
Many thanks for the tutorial. You have made me want to clean the top of my Zorki 1.
Do the same guidelines apply?
 
Oh, my!... I'm waiting on a Fed-2 in the mail. Laika, this is so great!
And, my RFF buddy Ruben, on the other side of town, has 'hands of gold.'

My Fed-2 is from a good Seller at a reasonable price... but, who knows?
Who knows what the use history is, and what's inside?!? I may never
have to do this... yet, knowledge is power ,and I have good hands...
too ;-)

Thanks again, Aussie mate,
Cheers, mike
 
This is a great source of info' and assistance.I seem to recall that it has been put on another site as a PDF File.Can anyone tell me where to find it.

Thanks,:)
Brian.
 
In case someone needs to know how to calibrate the rangefinder on FED-2 for close-focus:

Read post number 17 of this thread and see the following picture:

attachment.php
 
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Thanks

Thanks

I am buying a Fed 2 D (1958) in the next few weeks..This DIY is a great insight of the insides of these. I had a Zorki 1, and a Kiev 4, But I like the Fed 2 better for a long base RF. This and another Fed 2 thread has given me FSU Gas -- AGAIN -- :D

I guess I need to get a 50/1.5 also for this baby !! Or a nice 35mm f/1.8 Canon when I rob a bank to pay for it :eek:

Or Both :)

Peter
 
jlw said:
The inexpensive way to do this is to have the semi-reflecting mirror cover the entire finder area; that's how they do it on a Fed (and most other RF cameras that have a rangefinder patch with blurry edges.) This reduces overall finder brightness, because the part of the viewfinder outside the RF patch is also only semi-transparent, and doesn't pass all the light.


As to trying to make the finder image brighter in a Fed or similar camera: You probably don't want to do it! You could certainly brighten the image by polishing off some of the semi-reflecting material from the beamsplitter. But that would make the rangefinder patch harder to see, because there would be less material to reflect it into the finder view.

Your best bet probably is simply to make sure that the optical surfaces inside the finder are as clean as possible. Use great care if you decide to clean the beamsplitter itself, because the semi-reflecting coating rests on the glass surface and is easy to remove by accident.
Click to expand...
Actually this is incorrect except for the FED 1 and Zorki 1, C, 2 and 2C models and the FED 5C. All other models use a beam splitter made from two triangular prisms glued together. The reflecting surface is the interface between the two and it is neither half-silvered nor accessible. Beyond cleaning the external optical faces it is not possible to improve the brightness of the VF image. The FED 5C has a partial splitter, in the centre only, so has a much brighter VF with no loss of contrast. The early models (FED 1, Zorki 1, C, 2, and 2C) do have a half-silvered splitter and this is very delicate indeed.
 
I sent an email today to the site folks letting them know that the thumbnails and links to images in this tutorial are missing as of the server change. Hopefully they will return as this thread is excellent with the accompanying images.
 
I used this repair thread and excellent tutorial to clean out a Fed2b. But the Fed also had the diopter adjustment jammed. I have heard that mentioned in a few places. The symptom is that when one moves the diopter adjust lever all the way in one direction it gets "stuck".

The cause is that when the moving diopter correcting lens is all the way back it can be too far back for the lever to catch it properly so that it can move it forward again. The fix was easy. The square diopter lens (moving lens) was bent a tad forward. I just bent it a slight amount back from 90 degrees so that the top hit the stop slightly before the bottom. Therefore the bottom was slightly moved out when the lens is all the way back. Voila the lever has enough space to catch the moving lens properly. The amount tilted back from vertical is very slight but important at least on my camera.
 
After the server change the images on the first page were lost so I have reloaded them. While digging around to find the images I came across these as well, someone may find them useful.

Two different types of film counter tension springs

winder_spring_web.jpg


Strap lug detail

web.jpg



Multi part image

1. FED2 fitted with a FED5 fixed spool (interchangeable)
2. Standard FED2 removable spool
3. Lug that holds the spool in place
4. Spool removed
5. Film loaded on spool
6. Spool and film loaded in camera

loading_web.jpg
 
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Hello Laika,

thank you for your wonderful service manual! I have purchased a FED 2 that seems to work very well. The finder is clear and bright enough but wearing glasses makes it impossible for me to see the frame. Without glasses I can't read the scales on the lens, so I'dlike to use an external finder for my 35mm and 50mm lenses. The russian finder I own doesn't fit. So do you have an idea how to solve this problem. Would the Voigtländer finders fit? (terrible, the CV finders costs as much as 5 Feds!) Can you tell me how much the internal finder shows of the actual image? How do you use the camera when shooting objects at close distance? (parallax correction). So many questions....

Wallace
 
Laika, thanks for the new photos
moving_electron, thanks for getting the original photos back!
... looking for a FED-2 to take apart :) ming
 
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