Repairs: Practice on junk cameras

I implore you to obtain „junk cameras“ and practice on them before attempting even the simplest repair on a valuable camera. No amount of reading and explaining can take the place of hands-on experience. Manual dexterity, reflexes, sharp senses and logic can only be developed through actual practice.

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Thomas Tomosy, Camera Maintenance & Repair, Book 1, Buffalo: Amherst, 1999

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I can wholeheartedly agree with this from my own experience.

Before attempting to repair a camera, lens, or other photographic device, study and practice on an abandoned device. With the experience and insights gained into function and structure and the mistakes made during disassembly and reassembly, you are well prepared for the repair.


Shortcuts

This applies in particular to shortcuts (Tomosy), in order to solve a problem as simply as possible without dismantling:

Often you use a shortcut to avoid excessive disassembly, thereby reducing the risk of damaging the camera.

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Tomosy, ibid.

If you practice the respective method on a disassembled camera beforehand, you don't have to rely on luck when repairing, but rather you know whether it can work or not. Because you see what yor are doing.




Dissecting a camera for practice provides important insights and experience for the subsequent repair of the actual device.


This became clear to me again with F4S: Mission Aperture Lever. It makes a difference whether you introduce solvents and oil into a camera „on suspicion“ or specifically.

Even a service manual cannot replace this first-hand experience.

Even a service manual cannot replace this first-hand experience.

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Well Said

The service manuals ONLY tell where the parts should locate and how it should be operated. But it never told how the flaws were made . So in each repair one could definitely learn something new from it .

Speaking of practicing cameras, I prefer to start with camera that has no meters inside.

SLR : Pentax S1/2/3/SV models M42 camera.
They are the easiest SLR models that could come cheap and learn the most from it . Without meters so one can focus on how the shutter and mirror box operated. Most parts are hold be screws and interacted by wheels + lever gears which are nothing you could miss.

Later Spotmatic models (except F) is actually based on them , just added the metering with some parts changed. One thing is , as far as I could recall, some production has the metering needle rest at the middle while some would rest at the bottom. It is important to understand from this long-production variations .
If one prefer to being from Spotmatic , The SL model is almost suggested.

Fixed lens RF : Konica Auto S
Japanese had made lots of small RF for domestic market during the 1960s .They are cheap but have the quality there and the stuff there.
Auto-S is simple. After removing the front plastic leatherette and 4 screws , you can take off the lens/shutter unit and begin to work. The RF is adjustable from opening the top. Nothing special at the bottom other than the battery compartment. It is a very simple RF camera with CdS meter that assist.

Earlier days some people would suggest Kodak Retina IIIc or IIc. They were actually ok , but many failed to notice the importance of having right gear positioning and orders. The known "7" -like advancing saw that under the meter (IIIc model) is mostly worn because the previous user/ technician has forced to advance without noticing the correct positioning of it and the brass wheel that tensioning the shutter next to the shutter unit.

TLR: Chinese Seagull or earlier Japanese TLR
Most of them are clone of older Rolleiflex Automat models or Rolleicords. The mechanics are almost similar in knob / lever winded.

What one can learn from TLR are the focusing mech, film transports and the leaf shutter. Since 120 film has not holes like 135, the counter is highly depended on the friction from film's back paper passing through or by it. The old dirts or dried grease/oil are likely the source that causing poor spacing.

I do this with other things too. For example I got a mint condition Nikon SB-28 flash with a small electrical issue. Even though I had the service manual, I disassembled my 'beater' SB-28 first, before I opened up the mint one.

I assume that my first entry to a camera model is an autopsy, not a repair job! If I am not willing to see the camera as a corpse, I don't do a thing.

And even better if you have a second body around.

Of course over time you learn to recognize that a specific model is very similar to another model, so the corpses don't pile up as quickly with each new model.

I think the repair manuals are aimed at trained and qualified service personnel.

There are many things that are of interest to us as DIYers that are not covered.

For example, which tools and techniques should be used to dismantle a specific camera, how mechanical components work or the electronic circuitry, apart from circuit diagrams that show the connections but cannot answer questions.

The service personnel probably learned this in training courses run by the manufacturer or other training institutions.

Even Larry Lyells, to whom we owe the technical explanations of entire generations of cameras, is sometimes brief, see his articles in the SPT Journal on individual photo devices.