Does anyone still service CLEs?

[Huss]

try Steve's Camera Repair in Culver City CA

They don't touch them anymore.

Just shipped my CLE to Dave Easterwood as mentioned above in this thread. He seems to be one of the very few still willing to take a look and see if he can fix the CLE.
Fingers crossed.

 

[Chops_photo]

So this is new. I actually needed to steal the batteries from the CLE to test out another camera quick, so I pulled it out of the box, (i am incredibly slow at getting to the post office) and its almost working. I can fire the shutter, get meter reading and it all functions like it should for the first shot after turning it on. Haven’t touched it, its just been sitting, but every shutter speed fires, and the meter lights up, as long as I flip the switch from off to on every time. I may hold off on sending it for a couple days, just to see what happens. Confused, but i’m not complaining

 

[BillBingham2]

I had a Mamiya 645 freeze up on me many years back. Pissed was an understatement, it was about three years old, very light use. About six years later (on down the road to getting my first Leica M) I traded it in and warned them it wasn't working. Guy behind the counter put a new battery in it and it sprang to life. Got another $50 on the trade-in but dang some times I wonder.

Great news, fingers crossed.

B2 (;->

 

[Huss]

Just got a call from Dave Easterwood. There is something wrong with the meter board on my CLE. Mechanically all is ok. He will repair it, CLA the whole camera, replace the seals, adjust the RF, give it a 6 month warranty. All for under $200.

To say I'm happy is an understatement. No-one else would even look at it.

 

[BillBingham2]

Excellent news!!

B2 (;->

 

[lxmike]

great news

 

[Huss]

Indeed! A local camera repair shop wanted $200 just to adjust the RF on my Agfa Optima 1535. And the location of the adjusters are not hidden so nothing needs to be removed etc.
Dave's repair includes adjusting the RF and a full CLA and new foam seals. For the same money...

 

[GarageBoy]

John Titterington who does minoltas may be worth trying?

 

[qbart]

I just contacted pierro pozella from ppp repair (you can search ppp_repairs on instagram) and he confirmed that he is able to work on CLE, another good news is that he can also work on contax t2!

 

[Huss]

try Steve's Camera Repair in Culver City CA

They do not touch them. "No parts"...

Just got my CLE back from Dave Easterwood. He fixed it. $164.

 

[sepiareverb]

And with Leica NJ turnaround times! He must be good.
😀

 

[stevierose]

They do not touch them. "No parts"...

Just got my CLE back from Dave Easterwood. He fixed it. $164.

I’m happy that my recommendation of Dave worked out well for you. He’s a master repairman who has been at it for 40 years. He used to have a storefront but now he works out of his house. As you have found his prices are very fair. He has 3 or 4 storage units of parts for older cameras. As other repair places have gone out of business they have sent truckloads of parts to him usually just to get rid of them. So many times he can pull a rabbit out of his hat. I’ve used him for many years and he has tuned and resurrected many a camera for me.

Sometimes if he gets a lot of work in at once he gets behind and then doesn’t communicate as well which can be annoying. Most of the people I’ve directed to him have been very happy but a few have been annoyed by the longer than expected wait. So, if you send him something be sure to get as firm a time commitment on the repair as possible. However, considering that many more famous places charge three times as much or more and take 6 months for the repair, I am willing to cut Dave some slack on this.

When guys like Dave are gone I don’t know what us film camera lovers will do. It’s a dying art that requires years of experience to master.

Steve Rosenblum

 

[splitimageview]

I've used Dave a few times, good work, although he does disappear at times and seems to come up with somewhat dubious excuses for the disappearances...