Help! My very old camera doesn't work any more!

[healyzh]

Case in point. I got a great electric razor about four years ago. Never a lick of trouble except replacing the foil/blade assembly yearly. Finally using Li-ion batteries, the old "death of the NiCd" was now no longer a reason to have to replace a razor. So what does Braun do? STOP MAKING REPLACEMENT PARTS! B@stards. I had had enough of them and their nickel-and-diming on the parts and cleaning fluid at this point anyway... So I promptly went out and picked up a new Philips/Norelco. It washes out in the sink! Of course, I'll probably still get screwed on the replacement heads... *sigh*

I'm using a Norelco made in West Germany. In another month or so I'll have owned it for 24 years. On rare occasions it has a little trouble starting, a few years ago it wouldn't start at all. I took it apart and got it working again. I'm amazed it still works, and dread replacing it, as I figure I'll be lucky to get 2-4 years out of whatever I replace it with.

Needless to say, it's not a rechargeable razor, can you even buy an electric that isn't anymore?

 

[healyzh]

Some of us are learning to repair cameras like that Rollei. I've been buying old broken cameras and working on them for the experience. I resurrected a Rolleiflex Old Standard a few months ago... but still need more Rollei shutter experience.

That is one of the best idea's I've heard in a long time!

 

[polka]

My oldest working cam is a Rodenstock Citonette half-frame folder : with a Trinar-Anastigmat 75mm/2.9 lens and a Compur-Deckel shutter. Dated 1933 never serviced and still working like a charm. Very advanced technology : solar driven (no battery) and another sensor for each picture : rolls of 16 sensors still available.🙄

Paul

 

[healyzh]

Well, yes. It's a very old camera. Either get it repaired properly (if ir's a good very old camera) or admit that it was cheap to begin with; cost you almost nothng; and ain't gonna work properly again unless you pay more than it would cost to buy another one. By all means try to fix it yourself, but don't sell it to some other poor sucker wnen you fail.

This pretty much sums up my Minolta A-2 Rangefinder. I would like to take some photographs with this camera, but there is no way I can justify spending the money to get it fixed. I have plenty of better 35mm cameras that work, including other rangefinders.

Nothing made by man will last forever. Am I alone in being astonished that some people appear to expect 30+, 40+ and 50+-year-old high-end happy snap cameras (pre-1980. pre-1970 and pre-1960) to work for the rest of time? If they work (and astonishingly many do), well, great. If not, well, what would a rational person expect? How many of you are driving 50-year-old mid-range cars that have never been serviced? Or even 1950s Rolls Royces that have never been serviced?

I expect a quality piece of machinery to work for well more than 50 years. Granted I also expect it to need servicing. The only cameras I currently own that are 50+ years old are some 3D cameras and a Yashica 44LM. The one 3D camera is definitely worth having serviced. I would probably pay to have the Yashica serviced, even though it is nearly impossible to get film for it, as I *REALLY* want to take photo's of my children with it, and am tempted to freeze some 127 so that photo's of the next generation can be taken using it, but that is due to silly sentimental reasons.

Never discount someone being willing to keep a camera, or other piece of machinery running long past its practical lifetime for sentimental reasons! 😀

 

[Roger Hicks]

Dear Zane,

Quality, yes. But not mid-range. That's why I specified 'high-end happy-snap' - Canonets and the like.

Cheers,

R.

 

[maggieo]

50 years old? I'm fifty. Am I due for service?

Well...you might want a prostate exam. 😱

 

[healyzh]

Dear Zane,

Quality, yes. But not mid-range. That's why I specified 'high-end happy-snap' - Canonets and the like.

Cheers,

R.

Thanks for the clarification, your comment makes a lot more sense. There is no way I'd pay to have my Canonet repaired, I got the camera store to throw it in for free when I bought a Hasselblad 500C. 😀 Of course the Canonet was basically a "gateway camera" which quickly had me looking to purchase a Leica.

I thought you meant high-end camera's such as my Leica, where the owner isn't very serious about taking photo's.