Looking to start in Repairs

[batterytypehah!]

Go to a Goodwill store and buy all the $0.75 to $2.00 cameras you can. Most of them will have been dropped, and suffered some displacement of panels, levers, and switches. Batteries will have been left in from twenty years ago. People will have tried to work the controls, and messed things up. If you can bring some of those babies back to life, then it's time to step up to the next level. And sometimes you can find something really nice there.

PF

Maybe it's different where you are but all the Goodwill stores up here have is plasticky point-and-shoots. Occasionally a nice user among them (if still working) but all of them electronic wonders that were never intended to be repaired.

Goodwill switched to selling higher-grade cameras through ebay or their own auction site (shopgoodwill.com) long ago.

 

[Ronald M]

There are some things you can do, but most require test equipment. Sure you can adjust a RF with a star at night, yard stick, and a known good 50 mm lens. I have done it with perfect results, but it is a real pain. Best to have an infinity box and and tooling to to adjust thru the bottom of the camera and a three hour job turns into 15 min.

Shutter testers are expensive. Calumet sold a nice one that worked on 9 volt batteries and I will not give mine up. I suppose you could always use film.

You need the proper lubes, not an off the shelf substitute.

It is like trying to be a mechanic on a modern car and all you have are wrenches and screwdrivers. Sure you can take things apart, but will you guess the correct part to replace or do you have the manuals and test equipment to follow the proper diagnostic path/steps.

 

[christian.rudman]

Maybe it's different where you are but all the Goodwill stores up here have is plasticky point-and-shoots. Occasionally a nice user among them (if still working) but all of them electronic wonders that were never intended to be repaired.

Goodwill switched to selling higher-grade cameras through ebay or their own auction site (shopgoodwill.com) long ago.

That's how it is here in Austin. There are a bunch of little hipster resale boutiques I'll probably check out, but they tend to overprice stuff. Luckily my job actually has quite a few cameras that the tech here passes over, and I'm going to get a chance to pick through the junk pile! If anything I'll start acquiring a healthy amount of parts and disassembly experience. 😛

 

[farlymac]

Maybe it's different where you are but all the Goodwill stores up here have is plasticky point-and-shoots. Occasionally a nice user among them (if still working) but all of them electronic wonders that were never intended to be repaired.

Goodwill switched to selling higher-grade cameras through ebay or their own auction site (shopgoodwill.com) long ago.

Shoot, it's even different depending on which side of town I'm on. I've got seven Goodwills to choose from, and they all price their stuff differently. And I don't think they participate in the auction site, as I never see one of them in the store listing. I guess that's how I got a Minolta X-700 with it's 50mm prime, a Sigma 70-230 zoom in the leather case, an Albinar 28mm, and the original flash unit in it's case, for a total of ten dollars. But then that was a rare day.

But my initial intention was to have Christian get used to figuring out how to teardown a camera, keeping track of all the parts, and getting it back together and working again. And for $.075 to $2 a pop, he could get all the training aids he wants without worrying about ruining an otherwise repairable camera. And plastic is recyclable. Some p&s cameras I have found at Goodwill are highly desirable too, like my Olympus Stylus, and Canon AF35ML/Super Sure Shot. The main thing is to build up confidence in what one can do, then move up to the next level.

PF

 

[Landshark]

Two of the easiest cameras to repair are the Minolta SRT series and Pentax M42 or K mount. Neither are very high tolerance and both are pretty forgiving.
It might be easiest to get two of the same and dismember I mean take one apart, using the second as a guide for reassembly

 

[christian.rudman]

I'm pretty excited about this RB67 I am getting today, it has a stuck counter on the second back (I am aware the insides are like swiss clockwork) and I am going to tear that apart and attempt to fix that.

More fun is my boss has shown me a box full of guts from M3's and M2's and I am going to start sorting through there and playing with those just for the experience of pulling the pieces apart and putting them back together. It's looking up for this new sub-hobby!