FED 50
ФЭД-50 Автомат (FED 50 Automat)
Introduction
The FED 50 (ФЭД-50 in Cyrillic) is a 35mm film viewfinder camera with fixed lens made by the Ukrainian factory FED. It was produced from 1986 to 1996 and 107,530 units were made. It can be also called a FSU Camera.
Features
The lens is the "Industar 81", with focal length of 38mm, maximum aperture of f2.8 and minimum aperture of f16. It has a selenium meter which automatically selects shutter speed and aperture for the exposure to be correct. The meter is located around the lens and when the lens cap is on, it prevents firing. In the manual mode, the camera will fire always using the 1/30s shutter speed, allowing the photographer to choose any aperture from f2.8 to f16. When bulb mode (B) is selected, on the other hand, the camera will be fixed in the f2.8 lens aperture. In automatic mode, the camera will choose the both aperture and shutter speed, from 1/30s to 1/650s and aperture from f2.8 to f14. It has a hot shoe.
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| FED 50'S logo image by Sidinei Lorenzi Jr (Image rights) |
The body is mostly built in metal, except for the aperture and focus rings, and some minor parts which are plastic. Over the body it received a cover in vinyl.
According to the user's manual, the camera comes with shoulder strap, magazine, lens cap, flash lamp clip stopper, lens hood, soft case, packing box and manual of use.
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| base image by Sidinei Lorenzi Jr (Image rights) |
Some curiosities of this camera: - It has a distance focus reminder in the viewfinder, which moves when you turn the focus ring, showing with some graphics the distance. In the same way it has a vertical pointer in the right side of the viewfinder which shows the settings chosen by the meter; - Since it has a selenium meter, it doesn't need any batteries; - It has a film wind lever which needs just an approximately 120 degrees turn to wind the film.
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| Industar 81 lens and Selenium cell exposure meter. image by Sidinei Lorenzi Jr (Image rights) |
Links
- FED 50 user manual at Butkus.org
- FED 50 at SovietCams.com
- FED 50 at Antique Soviet Camera (archived)
