Past year's camera repair learnings

[flip]

1 - Don't always trust well known names in lens repair based on rep; go local and hire people with whom there is a reputation of customer service in addition to quality.
2 - If you deal with Shintaro, use his phone not his email. A simple phone call cleared up my M2 status whereas mails kind of vanished.... I now have every expectation that work will be completed by the 18 month mark. That's a repair and paint job, fwiw. His reasons were sound (finder separated during the processing) and I understand the reason for the delay (bonding agent issues).
3 - Nikon service in Japan kicks butt. 😛 I brought my es5000 scanner to them because it was selectively rejecting certain film types. I got the quote on the phone today - about 30,000 yen. Mind you, I am not the original owner and even if I were, it would be out of warrantee. I brought it in and they took it from there. Fantastic service. Almost makes me wish I owned a Nikon camera.... 🙄

 

[mfunnell]

Almost makes me wish I owned a Nikon camera.... 🙄

All really good points. But you can do something about the last. I say this as a dedicated Olympus (pre-AF) and Canon (EOS; after) shooter. These days you can and should own a Nikon camera. (You don't have to give up your others.) My 2nd-favourite 35mm SLR (after the unassailable OM-4T) is an FM3a which I picked up silly-cheap because of some purely cosmetic damage. It is a great little camera, and some of the lenses which go with it are pure magic. But my new love in this area may well be my newly-arrived F3 non-HP. It is a very nice-handling camera and cost very little. (Especially next to the off-the-planet pricing of the FM3a. I'd never have paid that much for mine, I just got lucky. You could buy 2 perfectly good FE2s and a good FM2n for the same money, and have cash left over for lenses, for what an FM3a goes for these days.)

...Mike

 

[flip]

All really good points.

...Mike

I considered the FM3A when I was shopping for a manual SLR. I instead went with the OM-1n. I figured the glass would be more repurposable with the OM system. Way way waaaay too easy to get hooked into something new.

 

[ankaka]

Thanks for posting! I got a lot to learn from you man.

 

[ColSebastianMoran]

More learnings:

4 - Dealing with a single-person or small shop, contact in advance to judge responsiveness, cost, and interest in your job. Make a personal relationship. Know what they can do and what they can't or don't do. Everyone is happier that way.

5 - Broken cameras, put aside on the shelf or in the closet, don't fix themselves even after months of inattention.

6 - Older stuff does break. When shooting something you care about, test everything beforehand. A stock of cheap film is handy for this. So is $2.99 C41 develop-only at CVS.

7 - Light seals are easy but messy to replace. Jon Goodman's kits help a lot.

 

[JeffL]

and more

8. Kyocera Contax Japan/Tocad's repair is great.
9. John Hermanson's Olympus repair is great.
10. See # 7 about Jon Goodman's seal kits. High quality and easy to do.