What's your most troublesome yet beloved camera?

coelacanth

coelacanth

Ride, dive, shoot.
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A bit slow Tuesday here.

We love old and/or mechanical cameras. That means it can break, give you all sorts of troubles time to time, yet highly repairable. If your P&S camera or even consumer DLSR breaks, you'll probably get rid of it or it's gonna just become a paperweight. That's often not the case with our lovable film cameras.

My most (formerly) troubled camera is M2. It was sold to me with false claim regarding the condition. It's been to Youxin for sticky frame line, uneven exposure and over all CLA. One more trip to him for further adjustment afterwards. Then I found out the lens mount flange was ever so slightly uneven, and M2 got new flange by Don. Because M2 was adjust-to-fit hand built, you just can't slap in whatever flange without good focusing calibration. The camera was at Don's for about two months. The covering was poorly installed when I got it so I re-recovererd it with Aki-Aasahi myself.

After all that, the M2 is now top mechanical condition, looking beautiful and everything super smooooooth. Yes I spent quite a bit of time and money on this old lady, but I am happy with this camera and I'm looking forward to many more years of shooting with it.

What's your most troubled or formerly troubled piece of equipment that you still use and love?

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I just got my new Canon T2i a month ago... That kinda weird, but I always hated digital camera. I hated the handling, the size, the look, the menus... But since the event of the DSLR in the film and video industry I came to make a lots of tests on it...

First glance.... My god, they really shot stuff with that kind of small and quirky plastic box...? Where is the PL mount? Where is the beautiful uncompress Motion-Raw...?

Since I am an video editor and a colorist, I did not have the choice but to understand that beast... After a month of tests, angers... and finally results... I came to like that little brat... Kinda small, compatible with the pentax, zuiko and zeiss(contax) optics... I now do some of my street work with it, apart of my official job...

But now... 5 days ago, my sensor just show me how beautiful the new vertical and permanent lines he now have... All over the frame! Great... He is now in the Canon hands in Ontario... Life is beautiful, when I just begun to like him!

My film cameras are so much more loyal, dammit 🙂
 
My FED-2d.
It is an export model, lovely in every way to look upon. Yet the shutter caps infrequently. The film does not wind on perfectly straight, so images are slightly onto the sprocket hole edges on one side.
But I like how this camera handles, and I like the images I get with my I-64 and I-50. So, someday, it will go to Oleg for a little tweaking ...
 
My c. 1960 Voigtlander Vitessa T. Its Achilles heel was that weird pop-up advance button which was finally its undoing. But oh, those lenses (50mm Color-skopar and 100mm Dynaret)! Loved 'em.
 
SUg, I am glad that your M2 is now fine; as well, I have shared your disappointment and troubles with a camera, in my case the ZI. I have bought 4 copies of the camera! Yes, I was determined to get a good one 🙂 The first three had alignment challenges right out of the box. The current copy I own -- my fourth! wow that is brutal to admit -- is not really "mine" as wife has claimed it. So far it seems fine after 6 mons. But it took a lot of determined patience to get a copy that had its RF aligned.
 
My only non 100% working camera is an FE2... It rolled down near 100 stairs inside a non really protective, cubic and almost spherical small bag... It hurt me all the way down... I thought for weeks it was dead because it wouldn't meter... But it was nearly perfect! It's needle just doesn't show the metering anymore... But it meters perfectly, has AE, exposure lock, DOF, electronic and mechanical speeds, everything! That makes it an AE only camera (fun!) and a mechanical one by guessing or using an incident meter... As I stopped caring about the camera's metering, that damage helped my photography grow... I don't want it repaired... I love it like that because it taught me I didn't need to know its opinion on light... I needed to have one of my own!

Cheers,

Juan
 
Hmmm. Right now, it is my ELC IIIf. If I let it sit overnight, the shutter doesn't fully fire. It takes 2 to 3 cycles to fire properly. A nuisance if I'm 1/2 way through a roll of film.

....Vick
 
My M3 DS Black Paint

My M3 DS Black Paint

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My M3 DS Black Paint.

It started out as a battered 734xxx chrome DS in parts, from Italy for EUR 100. Still has the original glass pressure plate fitted. I got an intermediate gear from DAG and installed that.

Later, I stripped the chrome and spent quite some time&effort to paint it black.
Bad idea, even though I could always track where it was at by following the paint flakes 😛

Since I really wanted a black M3 (I wear black 99% and don't want chrome cameras to stand out on me), I started to scrounge black parts.

I found and bought:
black short DS lever, unused (LeicaParts)
black lever retaining ring (LeicaParts)
black rewind assembly (my bad: did not fit, wrong type, LeicaParts)
black shutter speed dial (my bad: wrong times, 15,30,60,125 while 10,25,50,100 was needed, LeicaParts)
black bottom plate (possibly MP plate, LeicaParts)
black original top plate, unengraved (German eBay seller, unbelievable luck)
GripTac

and installed all those. I omitted the self timer. It never had a preview lever.

Self painted still are: shutter speed dial, rewind knob, rewind lever, accessory shoe, flash socket retaining rings, lens release button shroud. I plan to leave these be.

Since the transport stayed troublesome, Will van Manen CLA'd it last spring. He fitted black screws where necessary as well. Remaining issue: frame counter sometimes does not get past '0' even though Will had it back to fix that. Issue was gone but returned.

We're getting there: this autumn I plan to send the Black M3 to CCR Luton for a full RF/VF rebuild. The RF patch is weak and I want to have the original rangefinder/viewfinder assembly restored to as-new condition. I hope they can also address the frame counter issue.

I will never sell the camera, for the plain and simple reason its never gonna be anybody's as much as its gonna be mine, and since there's about EUR 800-900 in the camera as it is. I know the serial number by heart. It is used on a daily basis and by the time my new-shooting son inherits it will look like Jim Marshalls M4 😎
 
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my M2, but it's my favourite out of all my cameras, period.

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I had to swap out a leaky curtain... and then a few months later I had to fix a capping shutter. not terribly troublesome considering I bought it with that leaky shutter.


...sounds like dried out lubricants, Vick. maybe.

cheers.
 
Since I'm down to 3 cameras now this was an easy one. My Voigtlander Bessa RF. Red window folders are slow to use. Occasionally I forget whether or not I wound it on after the shot and end up w/ either a blank frame or a double exposure. You have to put a filter and hood on it after you've unfolded it, then take it back off to fold it back up. It has one viewfinder for the rangefinder and another for the viewfinder and both are pretty squinty.

But ooooh, that big 6x9 neg and the image quality of it's Heliar lens make it impossible to sell. Easily the best lens I've seen.
 
My friend Leica M6 makes me sad and mad.

My friend Leica M6 makes me sad and mad.

😡 My M6. My Leaky M6. But only outdoors. A leak seen as a 'V' stickin to the lower left side in the photographs. Am scared to send it out to get it fixed. But it ain't leaking when it is overcast or when I am indoors... does it happen when I use flash?... Don't know. Still it is my first rangefinder and my constant companion. One day when someone wants to buy my pictures, I will tell them, "That 'V' sticking to the side is my signature".

Still...😡 and 🙁

-Arun
 
I don't use it anymore as I sold it but when I still had it I loved it: My Hasselblad 501CM.

The problem with it was that, since it's a modular system, there was a large number of items that could malfunction at any time. When I got it it came with three lenses. The body's mirror was hanging low and one of the lenses' slow speeds were off. The seller gave me a partial refund which barely covered half of the repair fee for the body but that was ok since I got it for a good price to start with. Never got the lens fixed but exchanged it at a camera shop for store credit which paid for a tripod. Then for a while everything was good but one day one of the other lenses' shutter started sticking. Exchanged this one for store credit, too, which paid for a new meter. By this time I had already bought two newer lenses to replace the old ones. After a while the third lens started to act up, too, so I sold it as a bargain. Then one of the backs I had started to give overlapping frames. Got that one fixed by a guy on the internet in exchange for an old back I didn't really need. Frame spacing was still uneven so I just gave up on it.

All in all I really loved that camera but it was a love hate relationship. I was always wondering when the next thing would go wrong and cost me a fortune. And, worst of all, most of the times it was just cheaper to buy a new one than having the old one repaired.
 
I guess I should knock on wood here. None of my cameras have been especially troublesome.

Sure, my FM2n had to have its original titanium shutter replaced after 11 years, and its foam replaced after 20. Given all it's been through I'm grateful for the service it's provided me! It's brassed to a state of perfection at this point.

My Leicas just aren't old enough to develop quirks.

Knocking on wood now!
 
I guess I should knock on wood here. None of my cameras have been especially troublesome.

Same here. Let's not talk about cars, however 🙂
 
Definitely my Crown Graphic. The Compur shutter was dragging it's heels at low speeds when I got it and I've had some focusing issues due to incorrect ground glass alignment along with the the rangefinder being slightly out. And to top it off a couple of the film holders have light leaks and annoyingly I can never remember which ones ... until I use them of course! 😛

Then of course there's the challenge of learning to use the thing hand held not to mention mastering the developing of those glorious 4x5 negs!

But I absolutely love my Crown Graphic! 😀
 
my "FE49". It is a black, HEAVILY brassed FE2 i got off ebay for $49. It was missing half its leather, but mechanically sound. I put griptac on it, and starting shooting it quite a bit, then the winder started slipping. Took it to my repair guy, he fixed it. A week later, it started slipping again. I need to take it back to old boy, but i'm lazy and have more FE2's.

Overall, i've been lucky with my cameras, and had very little problems.

LENSES...... ha!
I've got a 5.8cm f1.4 NKJ that one day stopped reaching infinity. Took it to my dude, he said something is off inside and he can't get the parts to fix it. I took it apart, pulled out the focus limiters (near/far), and put it back together. Now it goes far past infinity lol. Had it regreased and now it feels better.
 
Mine was a now stripped for parts Yashca Electro 35 GSN. One time it would work flawlessly then the next time the metering would go dead then be revived.

I finally retired it to the boneyard....
 
Would have to be my Contax IIa - donated to me by my father. Was full of fungus and stayed in my drawer for 10 years or so until fully overhauled by Henry Scherer. Viewfinder is the pits compared to M and R cameras - but can't get rid of it cos all pics of me and my siblings were taken on it when we were growing up. Use it as often as I can and love the photos (Zeiss Opton Sonnar 1,5) and, as also use Amedeo (Contax to Leica) adapter on M s, its getting less use than it should. Shame - looks good and feels good - but that viewfinder ...
 
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