Fujica repairperson?

[mjflory]

The other day my wonderful next-door neighbor, inspired by all the photographers on our street, pulled out her grandmother's still-boxed Fujica Auto-M rangefinder. She took a roll at church, took it to work, and someone inadvertently knocked it to the floor. I looked at it and it advances and triggers, but I see no light through the shutter. She hasn't gotten the (pre-knock) test roll back yet, so it's hard to tell if the problem is due to the knock or due to a dead selenium meter cell, but as the manual settings don't seem to let light in it looks like shutter damage.

As an investment the camera is probably not worth an expensive repair, but I gather it has some sentimental value, and it seems to have been very well kept. Does anyone know of a repairperson who deals with Fujicas? It's a rather odd camera, with a shutter-priority auto-exposure system guided by a selenium cell, with a programmed override of the shutter setting. With its parallax-corrected brightline finder it was fairly advanced for a 1962 fixed-lens RF.

Thanks very much in advance.

 

[bob cole]

Fujica repairperson?

In reading another camera website about inexpensive -- but very good -- camera repairmen, the name of Eddie Smolov came up as both very good and very reasonable... From googling, I gather he worked in one of the former Soviet Union's leading camera factories...

[On Ebay a similar camera is being offered starting around $19.99]

Eddie's last-known address was within two unconnected camera stores in Brooklyn, Active Camera and Photofaction at 7th Avenue between President and Carroll Streets in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York 11215... tel: (718) 622- 5373.

I couldn't find any email address for him but you seem to be in the general neighborhood and might phone him...

 

[mjflory]

Ah, Eddie Smolov! Yes, thanks for reminding me... I've heard his name as well.

I'm going to talk to my neighbor and let her know, too, that it may be easier to replace than to fix the camera. They do seem to come up fairly frequently on the 'bay at about $20 (or maybe a little more if they're guaranteed to be working).

Thanks for posting this, Bob.

P.S., the next day: Took a while but now I remember why his name was familiar... I bought a camera from him! A completely disassembled Reflex Korelle in a plastic bag, but with a much better lens than the one on my fully assembled Korelle. He's a good guy to deal with.