FED f. M39 Industar-61 L/D 2.8/55mm prototype

In 1992, as the Soviet Union collapsed and with it the centralised production of Soviet cameras, individual factories attempted to find their own direction. At the FED plant in Kharkov, one such effort was an ambitious but short-lived project to develop a camera system with Leica M mount. The initiative ultimately never reached serial production.

During this period, only a handful of prototype lenses were produced under the FED brand, some of which still featured the classic M39 screw mount, and later, a direct M bayonet mount was also introduced. The lens offered here is an early prototype of the Industar-61 L/D 2.8/55mm, made with M39 screw mount for rangefinder cameras. It is completely different from the earlier iterations of the Industar-61 and is preserved in beautiful, near-mint condition. It comes complete with both caps and a plastic case.