For everytime I repair I would wonder why the factory decided to use nylon instead of metal. Some still claim nylon wheels are more durable than metal but after 40 years today we have seen the results.
One or more plastic gears in some Nikon Motor Drives are notorious for going out of service.
Sover Wong installs his own metal replacement
The technician I know in my place has been there for at least 40 years, and thinking about retirement now since he is getting too old. He is one of the people who inspired me to try camera repair myself. He shared his story to me and then I have been thinking about this.
Being specialist isn't bad , especially back when digital cameras weren't popular. Being a Rollei, old Contax, Leica specialist can definitely make enough money for living. But today is different : people can DIY and learn from YouTube, or just get another one from a cheaper cost. The repair works also hifted more towards to "newer" cameras that made after computerized or electronic control dominant in 1980s. However the ugly truth is those 1980s cameras materials, like the plastic wheels , are not designed to work for 40years. Once this piece goes wrong then the camera/lens could be dead.
For everytime I repair I would wonder why the factory decided to use nylon instead of metal. Some still claim nylon wheels are more durable than metal but after 40 years today we have seen the results.
Andreas, you may be interested in this video on camerarescue.org in Sweden, where they are training new camera technicians.
Ignore the goofy look on the person's face. He's actually a very smart aerospace engineer who became a film photography enthusiast a few years ago and has recorded extensive tours of Kodak manufacturing in Rochester, NY. His YT channels are Smarter Every Day and Smarter Every Day2.Tour the Camera Rescue Process
This tour is the one I have always wanted to do for everyone to see! Seems we just needed the right guest for it to become a reality.We have been trying to do our part to keep film alive for over a decade now, but I think communicating what we are doing has always been a pain point for us. Your...www.camerarescue.org
Being a specialist is a good thing, especially if the specialist is a factory trained Hasselblad repair person. Will this become yet another Hasselblad thread?
YES! That happened to my 1981 BMW. The gears were installed dry because the nylon was supposed to be slick. You buy replacement gears from, of all names, OdometerGears.com. They also make replacement gears for the height adjustment device inside Xenon headlights (where the heat ruins inferior plastic).Having said that, I have seen odometer gears in old BMWs crumble after a couple of decades. I am trying to remember if BMW lubed those gears or if they ran them dry in the old cars.
Retired now, but I have been able to make a career of optical & mechanical integration and alignment usually within the context of largish companies. In Canada, where I worked, this was mainly in the building and repair of instruments used in the defense, geophysics, medical, and graphic arts imaging industries. The electronics I was involved with and were generally quite complex. Amongst the opto/mechs, as we were known, there was no requirement for deep electronic knowledge as we had engineers to call upon for that. It was sufficient to be able to use an oscilloscope and look at signals. We would swap boards rather than components, sending them back for rework or investigation. Particularly in the medical devices industry there are quite strict rules related to who can work on what aspect of a device.
So, within that subset of precision instrument integration I was something of a generalist and greatly enjoyed it. Most of all training new integrators and production engineering support.
I would recommend this sort of a path to young persons today but my experience of nephews and nieces is that they would rather work on software. And they could be correct.
Bruce
I see repairing cameras as a hobby. I have specialized in the Nikon F2. I've already taken part in Sover Wong's repair workshops twice, and this September I'm traveling to Nottingham for the third time. I could of course apply the skills I learn there to other cameras, but I often don't have the necessary camera-specific tools.
Or, maybe Leica?
Being a specialist is a good thing, especially if the specialist is a factory trained Hasselblad repair person. Will this become yet another Hasselblad thread?
But what to do with a copal leaf shutter in Europe?
I think you're only really good where you're really interested.
And once you've mastered one camera device, you already have a basis from which you can work on other devices.
SLRs, for example, are not that fundamentally different. If I manage to take the top cover off a Minolta, I also have a good chance with a Canon or Nikon.
I got into mechanical Rollei 35mm SLR a little out of frustration. Seems the Japanese Bessaflex and Kenko cameras of the early 2000s came in Yashica/Contax, Nikon, Pentax, 42mm and maybe some other, but I always wished they made a modern Japanese camera for the Rolleiflex Zeiss QBM mount lenses.
Turns out the SL35 is somewhat of a copy of a Pentax anyway, and these mechanical Rollei are easy to find on ebay, so I started fixing them for my QBM lenses. But now I have more bodies than lenses...and this picture only shows about half of the bodies.
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I just restored a SL 35M, and later would try to work on a jammed SL35ME as well . They are after the original SL 35 designs and most mechanics have been simplified . I think I would get a hand of SL35 later as well .
QBM lenses are neat ! And their adapter of M42->QBM is a piece that must collect.
Once you open a SL35, you might not want to work on SL35M againI have not totally given up on SL35M, I have two that I got working well, but I don't think I'll buy any more SL35M to fix again. I think the SL35 is a much better design on which to work.
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