Catalogue information
The early Model 1 'Fed' cameras were made at the Felix Edmundovich Dzerjinski factory in Kharkov, Russia. This "Fed 1g" from 1959 was considered a very refined copy of the Leica II-D from 1932, made in the USSR. In fact, only the engraving of the "Fed" logo gives away its Russian origin. Although "Leica purists" hated the Leica clones, for the "poor man" - due to the high prices of a real Leica - they were very interesting cameras to have the "Leica feeling" in a cheap way. Because service and repair of the Leica clones was just as expensive as a real Leica, finding a well-functioning Fed 1g today is really exceptional. The coated Fed f: 3.5 / 50 mm standard lens on this camera is also an outright copy of the Leitz Elmar f: 3.5 / 5 cm. The Fed 1g was also produced for some time under the name Zorki I at the KMZ factory in Krasnogorsk. That was because during W.O. II the FED factory had to be evacuated due to the advance of the German army. The "Fed-1" cameras were mainly made for the Russian secret service because they could handle them so well. Dzerjinski was also the founder of the Cheka, the then secret service.
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