How good is Certo6?

Krosya

Krosya

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Hi all,
I was wondering if many people here had experience with Certo6, AKA Jurgen Kreckel - not sure if I spell his name right.
Anyway, I have seen his site - www.certo6.com, and at first it seemed very impressive and he came across knowledgable. But now, after I have had some experience with folding cameras (granted, not nearly as much as he has) I find some things I tend to disagree with him on. I also came across some posts that some people were unhappy with his CLA service. So, my question is - how good is he? How reasoable his prices and turnaround time? How easy is it to deal with him? I mostly do my own CLA on cameras, but some things I can't or don't want to tackle - I was thinking to try him out. So, what's the scoop?
George
 
I had him do a CLA on an Agfa Super Isolette & he did a fine job. Perhaps not as thorough as someone like Ken Ruth (Photography On Bald Mountain), but he also didn't charge as much as Ken would have.
 
I previously owned an Isolette III that I bought directly from him. The camera was sound and clean, with all shutter speeds working correctly. He CLAs the cameras before he sells them directly, of course, as well as the cameras he puts up for auction. The new red bellows was installed beautifully. No complaints here.
 
I now have the camera Laurence speaks of & it is a fine example. (I can not wait to get back the three rolls of Reala I shot with it this weekend 🙂 ) I had him do a full CLA & bellows on an Ansco Speedex Special "R" that Ms. Brim currently owns. He did an excellent job on it as well.

That said, I do know that there are some people at this site who have not had good experiences with Mr. Kreckel. It might serve you well to use the RFF search function to look for Certo6 in depth. While I can say that I have heard much more good than ill, it is always best to check things out as best as one can.

William
 
Just received a Zeiss Ikon 530/16 from what looked like a decent seller on ebay, which was described as "in working order" (and offered as buy-it-now), but it showed
- a non-working release button
- leaky bellows
- corroded film chamber
- non-working slow speeds

So now I'm definitely on the lookout for a reputed repairman or shop to purchase a good 6x6 folder in *real* working order!

I'm going to have a look at certo6's site... any other good references around?

Groeten,
Vic
 
I bought a Super Balda Baldax from him and it had a problem. In all fairness I think I created the problem. In any case he had me send it back, he fixed it "no charge" and it works fine. I think he is great and very trustworthy.

Best regards,

Bob
 
Krosya said:
Hi all,
I was wondering if many people here had experience with Certo6, AKA Jurgen Kreckel - not sure if I spell his name right.
Anyway, I have seen his site - www.certo6.com, and at first it seemed very impressive and he came across knowledgable. But now, after I have had some experience with folding cameras (granted, not nearly as much as he has) I find some things I tend to disagree with him on. I also came across some posts that some people were unhappy with his CLA service. So, my question is - how good is he? How reasoable his prices and turnaround time? How easy is it to deal with him? I mostly do my own CLA on cameras, but some things I can't or don't want to tackle - I was thinking to try him out. So, what's the scoop?
George
Click to expand...

I'd be very cautious. Maybe it is because I hang out in the Camera Repair Forum more than most, but many of the people I have heard talking about him have had problems with their C6 cameras.

One guy says he sent off several cameras for cleaning and every one of them came back with problems.

Another guy here says he bought a camera from C6 that had badly pinholed bellows. He sent it back and C6 sent it back with a replaced bellows -- that had a half-inch tear in it. He sent it back yet again and C6 called him a liar, but replaced the bellows yet again -- and this one had pinholes again. Last time I checked, he had given up and was looking for another repairman.

Yet another guy here bought a folder from him and it was missing several screws and there is something blocking the light path along the bottom edge of the film frame.

I'm also told, by several sources, that he sends some of his cameras out to be worked on by other people. If this is true (and I don't know that it is), apparently some of them are not very good at it.

On his website, the method he shows for his "CLAs" is a variation on the old "dunk and drip" method. but involving a vibrating cleaner of the type used for cleaning bullet casings (he used to be a gunsmith). It works, but you have to be very careful to remove all the glass first, and you have to tighten all the screws afterward. Also, it leaves the shutter completely unlubricated, which may or may not work out for you(depending on how smooth the surfaces in there are). This may account for some of the shutter problems that people have experienced.

There are numerous other complaints. To be fair, the good stuff has outnumbered the bad, but I don't know by what ratio. It just seems to me that there are an awful lot of complaints, that his prices are too high, and I just wouldn't get a camera there when most anyone willing to do it can do pretty much the same thing he does for a lot less money.

Oh, and there is a fairly significant amount of stuff on his website that I disagree with too. Still, it does make a fairly good reference, as long as you double-check some of his comments.
 
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I sent a 6x6 for a CLA and it took forever to get back. Perhaps 10 weeks.....then it did not work! Had to send it back and another 4-5 weeks to return it.
 
I was negotiating w/ him to buy a camera directly (not on eBay) and while he sent photos there was somethign odd about the email exchanges, he did not answer questions directly but rather in an incomplete and roundabout way. I got a bad feeling so I did not buy. That is my admittedly subjective impression, I could be wrong. But for myself I tend to trust my instincts on this stuff.
 
I've just bought a Super Ikonta IV from him directly via email exchanges. After I'd paid, he said it would take 1 week before he could ship out as it needed a service. It hadn't been clear to me from our discussions that the camera wasn't ready to go, and I was specifically buying it for a holiday trip the following week. I raised this issue with him, and he said he'd get it out within the day and send it express. He didn't attempt to charge me extra for this.

The camera arrived very well packed and seems to be in very good condition, so far as I can see. I ran 2 rolls through and have pretty terrible frame overlaps. Jurgen's take on this is that it's endemic to this model, and that his work has minimised the overlapping as far as possible, and that anyway we all scan and crop so it's of lesser importance. I didn't take the camera on my holiday.

I wrote the above without any personal comments. My thoughts are that I paid a lot for this camera, and it has overlapping frames. This is well documented, and known to be a problem with this camera. I am not sure it would be fair of me to blame Jurgen for this. If I was buying again, I might consider Certo, but I would check whether a camera was ready-to-go, and whether there were any issues I should know about...
 
Then you must have a very unusual IV. This is a well-known issue.

The Super Ikonta III & IV often have frame overlapping, usually not a huge amount & not on every frame, but usually a few mm's worth on the 1st few frames. My understanding is that it occurs because of the way the film advance mechanism works + the difference in thickness between 120 film in the 1950s-60s & today's (the paper backing then was significantly thicker).

Windscale said:
Super Ikonta IV film overlapping well documented! Where are the documentations? This never happened to mine.
Click to expand...
 
Mine may be the lucky one. I do, however, notice the space between frames can be rather fine (and uneven). May be because the overlapping never happened so I did not know it existed. I have used the camera for over 20 years. But now it does not get used as often as many years ago.
 
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My experience was good 3 times...,

My experience was good 3 times...,

I purchased a Hapo Balda from him (Balda Baldax under department store name Hans Porscht). It was in excellent condition and worked well. The pics from it were superb.

Jurgen renewed the bellows for me in a Mamiya Automat 6, and he was very clear that he would not attempt any repair on the film counting mechanism, which I can assure you is probably more complex and fragile than most shutters I have seen disassembled. Mamiyas film count mechanisms on the later folding 6X6 cameras are worthless, having had three bad or failing examples. Nonetheless, I was impressed that Jurgen was clear about not working on them because of the failure rate and propensity to fail.

Jurgen re-silvered the rangefinder glass for me on another Mamiya Automat 6 and was fair and timely.

Yes, I have a weakness for the Mamiya Folding 6. I place the Automat 6 at the very top of the list, IF you strip out the auto count mechanism, keep the shutter cocking, and use the ruby window. Incredible camera on that basis, primarily because of the film flatness advantage of the film plane focusing mechanism.

In all cases my discussions with Certo6 over the telephone and my transactions have been good.

I do note that Jurgen is very straightforward on his eBay listings and I have even seen him post at times when he is swamped for people not to send work in for a while, and certainly without time constraints.

I think he is an honest man, considering that he is attempting to revive almost exclusively 50 to 75 year old devices that were never really designed and constructed well in the first place.

Many of us have the expectations that the man can work miracles and bring a lot of really old CRAP up to todays demanding standards. OTOH, if there is misrepresentation involved, that's quite another story. That has not been my experience with Jurgen (Certo6)
 
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I have bought an Ikonta from him in the past (not a Super Ikonta) and have been completely satisfied. It was a fine looking specimen and produced fine pictures. That camera is no longer with me, however. I have no experience getting anything CLA'd by him though.
 
He's had a camera of mine, originally bought from him and sent back for repair, for more than a year.. Not a cheap one either..It took me months of emails to get a response only recently indicating that he had better get it out and look at it...Nothing since. I HAD been a good customer having purchased several cameras from him.
 
I had the EXACT SAME EXPERIENCE WITH HIM!! He did not answer questions and twice gave me the wrong info when he did answer. Also, he would not even start to "prepare" a camera for me until I sent him the full price and then it was "as soon as I get around to it" He acted like he was doing me a favor........thats BS where I come from. Very bad vibs!!

Ray

Pablito said:
I was negotiating w/ him to buy a camera directly (not on eBay) and while he sent photos there was somethign odd about the email exchanges, he did not answer questions directly but rather in an incomplete and roundabout way. I got a bad feeling so I did not buy. That is my admittedly subjective impression, I could be wrong. But for myself I tend to trust my instincts on this stuff.
Click to expand...
 
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