Squee New Fed Micron

This camera is a 3rd model (was made from 1968 through 1986) of FED Micron.

The early (1967), 1st model was nearly identical to the Konica EYE half-frame camera of the same period.

While the original model was nearly identical to the Konica Eye, the model III evolved to show a few small differences. For example, while the earlier models had a hinged film door, this version has a removable back.

The camera in this lot was bought in April,1975 (according to receipt).

General and technical characteristics

This is a half frame viewfinder camera with manual override.

Focusing is by distance scale on the lens or symbols in the viewfinder.

Shutter speeds are visible in the viewfinder as is a parallax frame for close-ups.

Camera has shutter priority auto-exposure controlled by a selenium meter around the lens.

The lens is a Helios-89 30mm/f1.9. Shutter speeds of B, 1/30 - 1/800.

Film speeds use the Soviet system (16 - 250).

The built-in selenium meter also sets the shutter speed and the f-stop in a programmed exposure mode.

At 1/30 the f-stop is f1.9; at 1/800 the f-stop is f16.

For flash use, the apertures can be set manually with a 1/30 shutter.

There is also a B setting for the shutter which sets the aperture at f1.9 -- great for night shots.

In low-light conditions a red flag covers up the shutter speeds and prevents exposure -- nice touches.

Film Size: 35mm
Image Size: 24x18mm
Dimensions:
height:7.5cm
width:11.7cm
depth:5.2cm
weight:445gm
Normal lens:Helios-89 30mm f1.9
Lens Mount: fixed
Filter size: M46X.075
Typical serial no: 7500742




That was the add a few months ago and to decided to buy it. Alas it took ages to arrive. I only arrived today. Thats almost 2 months.
Still I quite like these little halfframe cameras. I hope the ad it right and the selenium meter does work. The aperture selection is odd and difficult to know what you have selected. The instruction book is in Russian as you would expect but on the whole a nicve piece.


My Chayka is a delight to use to I hope this one lives up to its companion in service.


The Diana mini, the great disappointment, has been exchanged and I have no opened the camera. After using the little but heavy steel construction russian cameras I really don't wanna try the plastic badly made chinese camera. My delight in Lomo is lessened witht he failure of the Supersampler. I have a few old cameras, all made in russia and two from germany and they are all better in quality than the Lomo branded items.



So I have returrn the Diana Mini, Sold I hope the supersampler or I'll give it away, I'll keep the Diana love edition  (Its pretty) and the Old 1960s Diana F sell the Holga and stick to my Beloved Russian Cameras with a few exeptions. I do want a cat camera....

I know I can buy it from Four corners Dark I just hope stock stays until I can afford one.. lol Silly but cute.

Finally joined One roll one Month, the web site is horrible but the people are lovely. :-)

So I picked up film from vision images

Sunday was a non shooting day, least for the most part. I did get the Lubitel 166b out for some sunrise photos, after using exposure app to see what i was doing wrong. Ah.... Yes.. Well never mind the main issue is this time is the 100ISO 



MONDAY was a different kettle of fish... Tim was flying a 1940 tiger moth and as i have a great soft spot for these old ladies, i was no going to miss this shooting opportunity. Alas my digital camera had other ideas.. The sandisk CF card in the camera lost it's directory structure and hence my photos went missing. Thank goodness for husbands. He retrieved them all except the movies of the plane taking off. Well, disappointing but cannot be helped. ANYWAY I had packed the Lubitel, the Diana F, the sprocket Rocket, and the TIM135.. phew!! All had half rolls that needed to be finished off..i finished all the rolls off except the Sprocket Rocket. The Diana F developed a film jamming issue at exposure 15 & 16, and I had to be forceful in making the film roll forwards. When i took the roll out, it was not sitting properly and looked fat so the tension had slackened off. Something to look at next roll. I'll see how this roll went first. I immediately put it in one of my handmade canisters. (yay for husbands again) 
New film arrived along with the flash adapter for the Diana.  It doesnt seem to fit, this camera may just be too old for such nonsense.
I may retire this camera,if the roll doesn't work out. TBA. She is more of a museum piece anyway.

TUESDAY
Tuesday saw me back a work (boo) but this meant i was close to Vision Images. Good, I'll get the films. I was really looking forwards to getting my Ilford SFX film back. I even found a park out the front. Yay!! The filwere waiting. So i grabbed them greedily and had a peak. The Ilford was brilliant!!  It was shot in the Cmena 8 camera, its first roll, and i love the photos. I am very glad that i let the specialists handle this film. 
The other film was the troublesome Lomo X-pro slide film. I had a box of three roll and the previous two had been extremely disappointing. The film got great reviews and all I got was odd colours and lines. So my theory was my filwas damaged in the shipping (x-rays) this roll, the last in the box was my test roll. Was it really shipping damage or poor processing. 
The answer???
poor processing. This roll was advertised as being able to be processed in C-41 and E-6. Lies. The specialist, processed it lovingly in the dipping process in E-6 chemicals. They explained to me that my issues may be 1. Incorrect chemicals, cross processing is all very nice but not is you want colour. True colours. And 2. The rollers at the other place may be damaging the film as it goes through. Both seem plausible as all the other films has a streak through the films. Different cameras and all have streaks. Hmm trouble is for me now, this place charges $8.95 for a medium format, but a whopping $14.95 for a 35mm. 
I will certainly be sending my medium format to them in future, the films are worth $10 per roll anyway and so they deserve the dipping process and care that they get at vision images, but my 35mm for the most part (ILFORD SFX being an exception) are not worth than a few dollars. On the other hand I don't want all the films ruined by a streak. 

Anyway below are some photos from both films processed at Vision Images

Out and about with toys

I went out with a friend and David for Dinner, and I wanted to use the TIM135 and the super sampler. Of course the super sampler is supposed to be used outside, so the photos taken in the restaurant will probablyNOT  work out but it was fun. Tim met TIM135 and played with him for a while but we failed to use up the roll. Bum.

This is the sort of phtoos we were trying to achieve.

David and I took the Granville train and I played with Смена and her B&W film. She was nearing the end of her roll. I finised that roll and Granville station and was going to re-wind the film, when it occured to me that she does not have a re-wind facility. This model uses a take of canister and it was only when I read my notes about taping the end of the film to the take up canister that I remembered. Grump. No newfilm until I could find a way to take the two canisters out and manually re-winding the film. Hmm

I loked around work and rememnered that my locker room has no windows. Perfect. SO I dismantled my camera in the middle of the locker room. I am grateful that Catherine did not need to come in or the film would have been toast. Daid has suggested that our bedroom would have been good too but there is too many places to lose bits and pieces.

As per usual with this camera, my desk was littlered with bits and pieces of camera innards

So Lets see what the B&W film brings....