As my collection grows, I find more cameras to learn about. The FED cameras were a long-running, well-respected series of Leica copies and derivatives produced by a Soviet orphanage/commune/factory named for the founder of the NKVD. As odd as it sounds to modern ears, children at the Felix Dzerzhinsky commune were expected to produce products and earn wages to improve their own lot in life.
My FED 2d was copied from the Leica III. FED 2’s were produced from 1955 to 1970. I don’t know where in the production run mine falls. It came from the Ukraine via eBay and is clad in green painted leatherette. It also came with an original brown leather case. I loaded it with Portra 400 and took it on a photo walk at Odiorne Point with friends.
REFERENCES:
FED history – click the Information About Soviet Cameras link (sorry about the frames, beyond my control)
Notes from Mosquito Hill 