FED Camera List

F.E. Dzerzhinsky Factory, Kharkov, Ukraine. FED are the initials of F. E. Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the NKVD, and the factory was named in his honor. The NKVD was the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (= Народный комиссариат внутренних дел = Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del, (НКВД = NKVD), a secret police organization and predecessor of the KGB. The factory's original workforce was comprised of orphaned youths living and working together in a communal arrangement. After the groundbreaking introduction of the Leica II in 1932, Soviet leaders ordered a halt to the importation of photographic equipment and set the FED factory to the task of creating a Soviet Leica equivalent. Only 18 months later, in 1934, the FED factory began churning out its first clone of the Leica II rangefinder camera. Since then, they have produced millions of cameras, some good and some not so good. The variations in the engravings on the FED camera cover plates are worth a special mention, reflecting historical changes within the Soviet Union.

The original FED is a 35mm film Rangefinder camera, manufactured by F.E. Dzerzhinsky factory, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, former USSR. The original FED is also known as FED NKVD, FED-1 and FED-S. All original FED cameras produced between 1934-55, quantity 626847.

The FED camera was introduced in 1934 by factory of the Dzerzhinsky Commune in Kharkiv, Ukraine, former USSR. FED are the initials for F.E. Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the NKVD, in honor of him the camera was named.

The NKVD was the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (= Народный комиссариат внутренних дел Narodnyy komissariat vnutrennikh del, НКВД (=NKVD), a public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union later known as the KGB.

The factory was originally an orphanage workforce was based on youths living and working together in a commune.

After the groundbreaking introduction of the Leica II in 1932, Soviet leaders stopped the import of photographic equipment and set the FED factory to its task of creating a Leica of their own. Only 18 months later, in 1934, the FED factory began churning out its first clone of the Leica II rangefinder camera. Since then, they have produced millions of cameras, some good and some not so good. The early FED is a true copy of the Leica II, itself only introduced less than two years earlier. The FED-1 was continuously improved and produced in great quantities until 1955 at which point series production of the FED-2 commenced.

The variations of the engravings on the FED camera tops make it worth a special mention, reflecting the changes within the Soviet Union.

As with many early Leica copies, the fact that Leitz utilized non-metric production equipment escaped most of the early camera manufactures, the consequence being slightly finer thread pitch of the M39 mount, of which the FED is an early example. The flange to film plane distance, which Leitz standardised in 1932, also differs slightly on the early FED cameras. Each lens had to be matched to the camera for correct focusing. Later production FED cameras from 1950s were given lens mounts with the correct LTM pitch, and most can be found with the proper lens register as well. From early on, a few oddities exist as well, including a counterfeit Leica II, discovered by the German army when occupying the Kharkiv factory in 1941. However, the finish alone reveals the forgery. Considerable effort has been put in to revealing the story about this fascinating camera, and it is well documented and covered in articles and books. Special mention of Oscar Fricke, whose findings were published already in 1979, should suffice here.

Original FED types and engravings on the top plates

According to FED classification of Alaxander Komarov in Fotoua, there are 14 types and many sub-types of the original FED cameras. This classification is an improved version of Aidas Pikiotas' classification in SovietCams . In the latter all original FED cameras are designated as FED-1, and types are from A to G, with many sub-types.

Types 2-8 are also known FED NKVD and Types 1, 9-14 are also known as FED-1.