Why would anyone want to buy a 50 plus year of Fed 2 Russian Rangefinder camera? I have been interested in older LTM rangefinders ever since I bought a charity shop Fed 4 and a Jupiter 3 for my Sony A6300 mirrorless but had never looked at the Fed 2 Russian Rangefinder. I’d borrowed a Zorki 4 from a friend, but they are so heavy and clunky.
The Craft Project? Whats that all about then!? Well, it has been over a year since I wrote my longer piece about the importance of a long term photography project. My last project at The Vinyl Factory has been in the can for a few years and to be quite honest, at the time took over my thought processes for too long. So, now with a desire to do something else longer term I’ve decided to approach things differently and break things down into smaller ‘projectettes’. Hopefully making it more manageable.
I’ve been in possession of what has become my favourite 35mm SLR, the Olympus OM1 now for about eight months. Truth be told I have not shot it as often as I was expecting. The honeymoon period with it has faded a little. Because I now know that I can get acceptable exposures on my favourite film stocks (and some not so favourite) without too much trouble, the unpredictability of a new camera has now become the reliable and consistent. But I love the all manual nature of the Olympus OM1, and the Zuiko optics are in my opinion, exceptional.
Since getting back film photography over the last two years or so, like many others, I seem to have accumulated a number of different cameras. Some of which the first time round I would never have considered. One of those cameras is the much praised but diminutive Olympus XA.
If you have read any of my previous posts, you may have noticed a growing but common thread running through them: the Olympus OM range of compact SLR cameras. I have been using them since early 2016, starting with a borrowed an OM30 from a good friend at the start of my Vinyl Factory photo project. It is good, but requires a stack of five (yes five) little LR/SR44 cells to work! The advance clutch slipped a few times causing frame overlaps indicating it needed attention. Then, having been bequeathed a “2 Spot” (to use a colloquialism) and bought a used OM2n, I had, inevitably I suppose, begun to hanker after the original. The Olympus OM1.
