Why repair cameras? - Page 2

Paul Luscher · 01-05-2011

Maybe we should actually ask Don Goldberg, Sherry Krauter and John Hermanson why they do it. I'm just glad they're there.

oftheherd · 01-05-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben Z

But camera manufacturers could choose to intro new models in longer increments of time, embracing more evolution in each. The fact they come out with new ones in very short order with very incremental feature upgrades is what leaves me suspicious there's an economic agenda at play.

The incremental time frame may have been a little different (but not that much), in the 70s and 80s with film, when auto exposure and auto focusing came along. Every manufacturer decided he could add some little twist that no one else had, to sell his cameras. New models abounded in SLR and P&S.

Ezzie · 01-05-2011

I just ordered a folder from Jurgen Kreckel of Saylorsburg. There might be a business in refurbishing old folders, being somewhat simpler in design, but I doubt it. I'm just glad there still are people like him around.

BillBingham2 · 01-05-2011

I think there is a wonderful opportunity for a young interested party to do some apprenticing and could find skills to make a reasonable living for the rest of his/her life. The internet has opened up the world market to shops like this. I do believe that with a little understanding and experience you can make a living for many years working for customers around the world.

B2 (;->

Roger Hicks · 01-07-2011

What I was really wondering is why anyone would take it up now. The youngest repairers I know are in their 40s; many are in their 50s and older (I've known some of them 25 years); and quite a few I've known are now dead. There have to be easier ways of earning more money.

I hope you're right, Bill, but equally, I can't help feeling that the internet provides so much extra scope for timewasters, whingers, liars and non-payers that it's a lot MORE risky than running a little shop like my nearest repairer's, maybe 15 miles away.

Cheers,

R.

kbg32 · 01-07-2011

Marty Forcher's shop, Professional Camera Repair was a thing of beauty. There was nothing else like it. A friend of mine apprenticed with Buddy, who did all the fancy machining and adapting different lenses to different cameras. Buddy's room was right across the hall from the main repair shop. Marty and Buddy designed the first Polaroid back for 35mm. Specifically the Nikon F. My friend Noah is somewhere up in Rhode Island these days, machining, repairing, and designing speciality photo gear. He is an expert repairing Polaroid cameras. He is a little over 50. I don't anyone else like him.

bean_counter · 01-07-2011

there is a repair shop in this area that I use once in a while, saw a couple of 20-ish guys working at the benches in back; proprieter looks to be in his forties. pretty sure they're all from Russia. they seem to be keeping the doors open, even growing while everybody else has closed up

they did a decent job on my Barnacks.

al1966 · 01-07-2011

Why repair camera could be down to many things we now buy, the replacement is often less than a repair. I am sick of this though, we are filling landfill full of stuff that if it was well made in the first place.. This is down right morally criminal but as Neil Young put it; 'Its a Piece of Crap'. Gone are the days of good serviceable cameras, stereos, cookers and so on. Its sad to see these craftsmen go but, we are all just being fed tat.
Rant over

nikon_sam · 01-07-2011

The reason we have some repairmen today is that there is still a generation out there that believes in fixing rather than replacing...
Whenever something breaks in our home our 19 year old daughter says..."Let's go buy a new one..."
I tell her it doesn't need to be replace just fixed...
I am a Service Technician for Printing Presses (not copiers, presses) so fixing things is what I do...I have no problem taking the Washer or Dryer apart when they quit working and normally it's a minor part costing less than $20...
When our Instant Hot Water dispenser ($110) quit working I took it apart and found it was a $2 part that went bad...I saved $108...

We live in a time now where people have been trained that once it breaks we just bite the bullet and replace it...
There are some things that replacing rather than fixing is smarter like...Irons & Toasters...stuff like that...
There are cameras out there that get repaired and the repair is more than the street value of the camera...they get repaired by owners who love them and have a sentimental attachment to them...something my 19 year old doesn't understand due to her age and the age she grew up in...
I have a passion for fixing things and that may be the driving force behind people who repair cameras...just a plain old passion for cameras and things mechanical...troubleshooting and a curiosity for... "what's inside there???"

Livesteamer · 01-07-2011

al1966 raises an important point. We have a new category of trash called e waste. Old cell phones, i pods, pda's and computers and it's nasty stuff that is difficult to recycle. Further, these products use up rare earth elements and other resources. It just may be that a long lasting film camera is more environmentally friendly. Joe

nikon_sam · 01-07-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by Livesteamer

al1966 raises an important point. We have a new category of trash called e waste. Old cell phones, i pods, pda's and computers and it's nasty stuff that is difficult to recycle. Further, these products use up rare earth elements and other resources. It just may be that a long lasting film camera is more environmentally friendly. Joe

Pretty soon we won't be able to throw away our light bulbs (CFL's) in the regular trash...they took away mercury batteries because they were/are bad for the environment and now they're cramming these things down our throats...all the while saying they're good for us...

Roger Hicks · 01-08-2011

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikon_sam

Pretty soon we won't be able to throw away our light bulbs (CFL's) in the regular trash...they took away mercury batteries because they were/are bad for the environment and now they're cramming these things down our throats...all the while saying they're good for us...

Well, mercury batteries are bad for the environment -- twice. Once during manufacture, and them again in landfill. In the shop or in your camera, they're fine. Same with cadmium (as in old batteries, old photo papers, even some films -- it was cadmium that killed Super-XX). The water that leaches through landfill can end up in your drinking water...

If people recycled things more, fewer things might get banned. Or of course they could buy things that are reparable, as you say. Even a toaster is reparable if it's good enough quality (Dualit).

Cheers,

R.

al1966 · 01-08-2011

We are looking into led based light bulbs as a alternative to these CFL things. The problem is I am plagued with migraines and those cfl bulbs are a trigger so as they are removing trad bulbs I have to find some form of alternative. LED based bulbs though cost an arm and a leg plus a kidney though.