C41
Kodak Portra 400
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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rangefinder-35mm
The FED-1c is a transitional production batch of the FED-1 rangefinder, manufactured at the FED factory in Kharkiv, Ukraine around 1955 - the final year of the FED-1 line before the FED-2 superseded it. It retains the same fundamental Leica II-derived architecture (M39 LTM mount, horizontal-cloth focal-plane shutter, bottom-load film loading, combined rangefinder-viewfinder window layout) but reflects incremental manufacturing improvements accumulated over two decades of FED production. The FED-1c designation is used by collectors and researchers to distinguish this late-production batch from earlier FED-1 variants; it is not a formally marketed model name in the Western sense.
Reference
Recommended film stocks for the 35mm format your camera takes.
C41
Kodak Portra 400 is a professional C-41 color negative film known for flexible exposure latitude, natural skin tones, and fine grain.
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Ilford HP5 Plus is a flexible ISO 400 black-and-white film with classic grain and strong push-processing tolerance.
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Kodak Tri-X 400 is a classic black-and-white film known for strong tonality, visible grain, and documentary character.
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Before you buy used
About this camera
The closing chapter of the FED-1 line: a late-production FED-1 refined just before the FED-2 took over.
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Format | 35mm |
| Mount | M39 / LTM |
| Years | ~1955-1956 |
| Shutter | ~1/25s - 1/500s + B, mechanical horizontal cloth |
| Flash sync | None |
| Meter | None |
| Modes | Manual |
| Weight | ~530 g |
| Battery | None |
The FED factory in Kharkiv started producing Leica II copies in 1934 as part of a labor-commune educational program. Over the subsequent two decades, production quality and tooling improved steadily. By the early 1950s, post-war FED-1 bodies showed tighter tolerances and more consistent finishing compared to pre-war and wartime examples. The FED-1c batch represents approximately the last refinement of this first-generation design before FED engineers introduced the substantially redesigned FED-2 (1955), which replaced the removable base with a hinged back and updated the film-advance mechanism. Some sources treat the transition-era bodies from ~1954-1955 as a distinct sub-variant; the collector shorthand "1c" reflects this distinction. Production of the FED-1 type ended when the FED-2 line was fully tooled up.
For collectors, the FED-1c occupies an interesting position: it has the familiar FED-1 form factor but with the improved build quality of late post-war Soviet manufacturing. Unlike earlier wartime or immediate post-war FED-1 bodies, which can show uneven finishing and sloppy tolerances, late-production FED-1 examples often run more reliably and have sturdier shutter mechanisms. Because the "FED-1c" label is a collector designation rather than an official production marking, condition and serial-number range matter more than the designation itself when evaluating a specific example. Bodies from this era typically carry Industar-22 or Industar-10 collapsible lenses (Soviet derivatives of the Leica Elmar design).
M39 / LTM mount accepts any Leica Thread Mount lens. Typical period pairings:
C41
Kodak Portra 160 is a professional C-41 color negative film with fine grain, soft contrast, and natural color.
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Kodak Gold 200 is a daylight-balanced C-41 color negative film with warm color, moderate grain, and a classic consumer-film look.
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