In 1932 a revoltion swept the camera world in the form of the Leica II, the first rangefinder with a built-in viewfinder from the illustrious German company. FED (1932-1996) The Fed 1 model IV b / Image by ☰☵ Michele M. But how did FED go from making simple drills to creating Russia’s first rangefinder? FED made the very first camera in Russia, and many models are still widely available on Ebay today. In the beginning, it was just tasked with producing electric drills.Īt this point you might start to recognise a few details. This rather elongated name eventually led to the factory being referred to by its initials FED, or ФЭД in cyrillic. Dzerzhinsky, founder of the NKVD (which preceded the KGB).

It only resembled anything capable of building machinery in December 1927, when it was renovated and renamed after Felix E. In fact, what was to become the first camera factory in the entire USSR originally began as an orphanage in Kharkov, Ukraine. Forged from blood and iron…and theftīefore the formation of the Soviet Union in 1922, Russians had relied solely on foreign imported cameras.

Not to mention that recently, a certain Russian camera brand announced that they are planning a big, misguided revival in this digital age. When we look back upon the great cameras of history we can see the grand old legacies established by engineers from Japan ( Asahi Pentax, Olympus, Contax, Nikon, Canon, Ricoh, Mamiya, Konica, Minolta, Bronica), Germany ( Leica, Rollei, Agfa, Plaubel, Ihagee, Zeiss Ikon), and the United States ( Kodak, Argus, Polaroid).īut we often forget the cameras from one country- Russia-that many photographers remember fondly for their quirky qualities and relative affordability.

Vintage german camera brands