Phil_F_NM
Camera hacker
The other question for the OP, is: "do you have experience and tools to successfully repair and adjust a camera?"
ONCE in my life, I did a deep repair on my Leica M4, but I was in Fallujah, Iraq and there isn't any Leica repair service within a few thousand miles. I had dove down onto my camera and stripped the winder shaft. I happened to be a part of a Navy Combat Engineering unit and we had a machine shop handy. I used channel locks, a small set of craftsman screwdrivers, and my swiss army knife. The job got done but it wasn't pretty.
That said, I already knew how to do some basic top-cover-off work on a Leica. Also, that was one of my personal cameras, not my issued camera, so in spite of the perceived "need" for a second Leica, it really was a "want", a luxury. My other personal camera was an M2.
If I had to do it again, I would have taken a pair of Nikon F2 and a single F3, along with the Nikon digital.
Moral of the story is do not do your own repairs unless you are out in east BFE and a month away from a city.
This is why I recommended Barnacks. However, you can't have it all. I have a few years experience in still and motion picture camera repair, yet I still send gear out to people much more experienced and wiser than I, with all of the appropriate tools and lubricants.
If you want an awesome camera that will blow away anything you can get from a Leica, AND is fully repairable, get a restored Speed Graphic and a couple nice lenses with newly serviced shutters.
Really this is all just forum fodder conjecture. Money is no object, as the OP wants a spare camera, but wants to be able to repair it. Repairing a camera is something one does by yourself when you both need the money from the camera providing income (hence the spare) AND you are a working photographer who knows thirty different ways to flavor beans and rice.
If you can afford the spare camera, you can afford to have it repaired by a qualified, experienced tech.
Phil
ONCE in my life, I did a deep repair on my Leica M4, but I was in Fallujah, Iraq and there isn't any Leica repair service within a few thousand miles. I had dove down onto my camera and stripped the winder shaft. I happened to be a part of a Navy Combat Engineering unit and we had a machine shop handy. I used channel locks, a small set of craftsman screwdrivers, and my swiss army knife. The job got done but it wasn't pretty.
That said, I already knew how to do some basic top-cover-off work on a Leica. Also, that was one of my personal cameras, not my issued camera, so in spite of the perceived "need" for a second Leica, it really was a "want", a luxury. My other personal camera was an M2.
If I had to do it again, I would have taken a pair of Nikon F2 and a single F3, along with the Nikon digital.
Moral of the story is do not do your own repairs unless you are out in east BFE and a month away from a city.
This is why I recommended Barnacks. However, you can't have it all. I have a few years experience in still and motion picture camera repair, yet I still send gear out to people much more experienced and wiser than I, with all of the appropriate tools and lubricants.
If you want an awesome camera that will blow away anything you can get from a Leica, AND is fully repairable, get a restored Speed Graphic and a couple nice lenses with newly serviced shutters.
Really this is all just forum fodder conjecture. Money is no object, as the OP wants a spare camera, but wants to be able to repair it. Repairing a camera is something one does by yourself when you both need the money from the camera providing income (hence the spare) AND you are a working photographer who knows thirty different ways to flavor beans and rice.
If you can afford the spare camera, you can afford to have it repaired by a qualified, experienced tech.
Phil
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