FED

History

Originally an orphanage in Kharkov, Ukraine, the FED factory was turned into a labor commune in the 1920s and renamed after Felix E. Dzerzhinsky, founder of the NKVD which was the forerunner to the KGB. Eventually it came to be known by the initials, FED.

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.

Screwmount Rangefinder Cameras

• FED NKVD
• FED S
• FED 1
• FED 2
• FED 3
• FED 4
• FED 5
• FED 6 TTL

Fixed-lens Rangefinder Cameras

• FED 10
• FED 11
• FED 35
• FED 35A
• FED 50

Links

• Zorkis and FED repair notes
• Rangefinders of the Former Soviet Union
• Notes in German about the FED
• History of the FED Kharkov Machinery Plant
• FED pages at Antique Russian Camera
• FED 35mm Rangefinder Page at Communist Cameras