KoNickon
Nick Merritt
It's finding the "numerous skilled persons" that's the issue.
The Lens Repair Apocalypse: Repair Shops INUNDATED with work, and will get worse.
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Richard G
Veteran
According to one leader in the industry’s front of house, local to you, the touch required for some of this still needs to be learnt, over months, by those already selected for interest at least, and perhaps only modest aptitude. What we can learn is amazing. Indifferent but pliant children can be taught the piano, and sort of the violin. Good luck to your son for getting where he wants to be. I have trained one very mediocre student in my field, with a sweet heart and kenness. He got there, to my surprise. I’ll bet your son is better than him.
boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
Anybody can buy that gear. Even I can buy that gear. It's the getting it to work that requires obscure animal parts and instantiations. Admit it, you are in league with djinns. ;o)
boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
Lens and camera repair is not attractive. There are lots of jobs which require long periods of training and then years of practice. That is one area Brian and I share, slinging code. It is a long way from the "Hello World" in that first class to getting stuff written that actually works and does things. And there is always more to learn. Brian's apps are more scientific and demanding, mine were not so much. But they both take time, perseverance and skill.
Camera and lens repair are different in that it is small, like self-employed with all the grief that goes with that or you are in a small shop. You are probably not getting fat paychecks - hey where were mine? - paid vacations, great benefits and a good retirement package. So you have to gather all those skills, a great deal of patience, a belief in what you are doing and a deep desire to do it against a dicey future.
Yeah, those nerds with eye loupes, crook neck lamps and work benches covered with strange tools deserve our gratitude and reverence. Treat them nicely. I am sure that gratitude helps a lot.
Camera and lens repair are different in that it is small, like self-employed with all the grief that goes with that or you are in a small shop. You are probably not getting fat paychecks - hey where were mine? - paid vacations, great benefits and a good retirement package. So you have to gather all those skills, a great deal of patience, a belief in what you are doing and a deep desire to do it against a dicey future.
Yeah, those nerds with eye loupes, crook neck lamps and work benches covered with strange tools deserve our gratitude and reverence. Treat them nicely. I am sure that gratitude helps a lot.
Found this interview:
www.notes.nicefilmclub.com
Don is about a year older than me. Reading this- I'm glad I went down my path. Multiple reasons. I can still use techniques that I learned when I was young, and still get "Wow" from younger engineers when showing the work. We're Dinosaurs. And damned proud of it.
I like the part about "screws" and "Screwing back in". With many of these old and ancient lenses, something I learned with the Simlar 5cm F1.5 and a lot of Jupiters- put the screws back in the hole they came out of. Clean the screws. Use ice-cube trays, one screw per compartment. And when you are writing self-modifying code in Fortran and take over the protected-mode interrupt vector table learn how to debug your software when the only error message you receive is a blank screen and a locked keyboard. I use a Vulcan Mind Meld with the computer. Just like Star Trek.
Interview with Don Goldberg: A Leica Repair Master — Nice Notes
www.notes.nicefilmclub.com
Don is about a year older than me. Reading this- I'm glad I went down my path. Multiple reasons. I can still use techniques that I learned when I was young, and still get "Wow" from younger engineers when showing the work. We're Dinosaurs. And damned proud of it.
I like the part about "screws" and "Screwing back in". With many of these old and ancient lenses, something I learned with the Simlar 5cm F1.5 and a lot of Jupiters- put the screws back in the hole they came out of. Clean the screws. Use ice-cube trays, one screw per compartment. And when you are writing self-modifying code in Fortran and take over the protected-mode interrupt vector table learn how to debug your software when the only error message you receive is a blank screen and a locked keyboard. I use a Vulcan Mind Meld with the computer. Just like Star Trek.
Richard G
Veteran
Found this interview:
Interview with Don Goldberg: A Leica Repair Master — Nice Notes
Don is about a year older than me. Reading this- I'm glad I went down my path. Multiple reasons. I can still use techniques that I learned when I was young, and still get "Wow" from younger engineers when showing the work. We're Dinosaurs. And damned proud of it.
I like the part about "screws" and "Screwing back in". With many of these old and ancient lenses, something I learned with the Simlar 5cm F1.5 and a lot of Jupiters- put the screws back in the hole they came out of. Clean the screws. Use ice-cube trays, one screw per compartment. And when you are writing self-modifying code in Fortran and take over the protected-mode interrupt vector table learn how to debug your software when the only error message you receive is a blank screen and a locked keyboard. I use a Vulcan Mind Meld with the computer. Just like Star Trek.
Just to hear the Vulcan invoked, and thinking of RFF and our gear, reminds of one of my favourite quotes of Mr Spock: "After a time you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting after all. It is not logical. But it is often true."
Edited for the removal of an unnecessary qualification, erroneously substituted for the proper prenominal of Mr Spock.
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raydm6
Yay! Cameras! 🙈🙉🙊┌( ಠ_ಠ)┘ [◉"]
When the major repairers are out of the picture in the not too distant future (no pun intended) - and there are no direct dependable replacements - I wonder what that will do to the market prices of our cameras. It’s almost as though their value is directly related (in a way) to their repairability (collectables notwithstanding).
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Mackinaw
Think Different
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boojum
Ignoble Miscreant
I have heard from some who conjure up solutions to lenses and cameras that folks who use their services are not grateful. There are those who think lens and camera rep[air is on a par with toaster repair, you know, replace the plug and it is as good as new. Just consider how few can do the repairs and then of that set the subset of how few do repairs really well. Count 'em on one hand I bet.
So if you have a shop or person who can and will do the work and do it right understand the luck involved in finding that person and heap praise upon them. I bet a jug of single malt at Christmas wouldn't hurt either. There may come a time when it is easier to get past the bouncer at that swanky and elite club than getting your gear fixed. Really. Leica turnaround times of twelve months!? Having a few cameras is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity.
So if you have a shop or person who can and will do the work and do it right understand the luck involved in finding that person and heap praise upon them. I bet a jug of single malt at Christmas wouldn't hurt either. There may come a time when it is easier to get past the bouncer at that swanky and elite club than getting your gear fixed. Really. Leica turnaround times of twelve months!? Having a few cameras is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity.
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Freakscene
Obscure member
It is not a myth. The remaining film sellers and developing labs are seeing a large increase in volume. I got asked recently to ‘get back into it’, but declined.
Godfrey
somewhat colored
If you are a photographer and you use your cameras to make your living wage, having "a few cameras" was always a necessity.
If you are a hobbyist, it is only a necessity if your desire to make photographs motivates you to do so—to never be without a camera ready to make photographs.
I am no longer making my living (or any part thereof) from my photography. But over the 60+ years of my doing photography, I have accreted enough cameras that I can probably use a different one every day for ... a great deal of time... 😉
Note: This is nothing to be proud of, it just happened that way.
G
Richard G
Veteran
O M G. How did I do that. I was at work. But no excuse. Apologies to all Trekkies in all countries. I will revise.
Freakscene
Obscure member
“It’s life Jim but you know more than you think you do” 😂
farlymac
PF McFarland
I started repairing my own cameras because it was either cheaper than sending them off, or most of them the current shops wouldn't touch. I found out why on that second point by taking the time to do a proper job of it, something a repair shop cannot invest in as there is minimal to no return on said investment, such as when I overhauled a Contaflex II. Man, that is one over-engineered camera!
Folks started to ask me to do repairs for them as I posted my work on Flickr (some of you have visited my album pages). It's okay to do such work as long as replacement parts were not needed. I did not have a stockpile of scrap cameras to pull pieces off of, so I was limited to doing CLA's mostly. I also didn't have the training needed to work on more complex cameras such as SLR's, or replacing shutter curtains. And I couldn't do the work for pay as that would have caused issues with my disability settlement, so I didn't have an incentive to take on others camera/lens repair needs. And as I accumulated more cameras that needed work it got to be less fun doing it, since it cut into the time I could have been out taking photos instead of being hunched over a workbench.
As I get older, I wish I had started repairing cameras much sooner and worked for someone else in an established business instead of striking out on my own. I could have learned so much more before all the medical issues started to derail my efforts.
PF
Folks started to ask me to do repairs for them as I posted my work on Flickr (some of you have visited my album pages). It's okay to do such work as long as replacement parts were not needed. I did not have a stockpile of scrap cameras to pull pieces off of, so I was limited to doing CLA's mostly. I also didn't have the training needed to work on more complex cameras such as SLR's, or replacing shutter curtains. And I couldn't do the work for pay as that would have caused issues with my disability settlement, so I didn't have an incentive to take on others camera/lens repair needs. And as I accumulated more cameras that needed work it got to be less fun doing it, since it cut into the time I could have been out taking photos instead of being hunched over a workbench.
As I get older, I wish I had started repairing cameras much sooner and worked for someone else in an established business instead of striking out on my own. I could have learned so much more before all the medical issues started to derail my efforts.
PF
Retro-Grouch
Veteran
I don't think that there are many RFF members who need to worry about having too few cameras!
WoodallP
Pragmatist Barnack lover
You have to have enough just in case! It’s storage space that is the problem.