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| Repairs I get a lot of inquiries from folks asking me if I repair cameras, whether their cameras are worth repairing, or how much to pay. No, I don't repair other people's cameras. I saw a post once from a guy in India whose Nikon F3 had broken and he wanted to know how to fix it. Frankly, he had as much chance of doing that as he would trying to learn to fly a helicopter from a magazine article. The reason professional repairs are expensive is that it is highly skilled work, on par with or above watch making. Special tools are needed, and taking even a simple camera apart requires a great deal of experience. Those who dabble with repairs as a hobby - like me - are prepared to accept the fact that the operation might fail leaving a dead patient on the table. To do this kind of job right, years of training and experience are needed. Expensive special tools are sometimes the only way to open an assembly up. There's no easy way to fix most cameras yourself, believe me! The inside of a Rolleiflex or a Nikon is no place for most of us. Like bomb disposal, one wrong move and you're dead! If you want to test your ability, try this: replace the flint in one of those plastic, throw-away lighters. If you get it halfway apart and the spring flies across the room to get lost behind the cupboard, forget any hopes of working on a camera yourself. Imagine you had to go to hospital for surgery. If you were operated on by a second-year intern under supervision you'd probably safe enough, but would you want the scalpel in the hands of somebody who was just thinking about studying medicine? If the camera means a lot to you a full service including fixing the meter will cost you around $120 or so. Your camera would come back working like new, and you'd have another twenty years of good service out of it. It might be cheaper to look for a similar camera used as a replacement, but you'd run the risk of being in the same mess three months down the road. What can I fix myself? All of the tips below are entirely at your own risk. I'm not responsible if you bugger your camera up! Be a pessimist: expect failure, and you'll get a nice surprise if it works! Optimists are so often disappointed! One repair that's relatively simple is replacement of the various light seals on a camera. Take your time, and carefully scrape off the blobs of goop that once prevented light from getting inside your camera, using a plentiful supply of Q-tips, wooden matches and patience. A little lighter fluid or alcohol in an egg cup, used sparingly, will help, but don't go sloshing the stuff around. Once you've got everything nice and clean, you can make up new seals using a variety of different materials - the black foam packing that came with your computer, cut carefully to shape using a scalpel or X-acto knife, will serve admirably. Dense foam rubber known in Germany as "Moosgummi" can be purchased in sheets at DIY shops, and is thin enough to cut with a paper trimmer. It's available in a variety of thicknesses from 1mm to 3mm. A manual lens that's gone stiff - one that needs two gorillas to move the focusing ring - can often be helped by carefully opening the back of the bayonet - making a little sketch of the inside as you remove the bayonet is a good idea Usually just a few cross head screws gets you in. Focus to its closest distance, and apply a few drops of lighter fluid with a fine pointed brush to the inside of the threads. Don't go crazy with fluid, but just put a couple of drops on the thread and move the lens back and forth a few times. With luck you'll feel it begin to free up. An alternative is to apply a 50:50 mixture of light machine oil (sewing machine oil) and lighter fluid. The lighter fluid later evaporates, leaving the oil in place. If you overdo it, oil will spread to the glass elements or the diaphragm blades, resulting in a wonderful new paperweight for your desk. Work slowly - better to spend two hours doing it carefully than the rest of your life regretting it! A common problem with elderly SLRs is a corroded battery compartment. Obviously, this is something you can have a go at yourself with a reasonable chance of success. Clean as much of the green crud away with wooden matches and Q-tips, and use very fine emery paper taped to the end of a pencil to polish up the electrical contact. this may or may not work, depending on how far the corrosion has spread - the wire connection between the metal contact may have separated and unfortunately it's not accessible without taking the base plate off the camera. It's up to you if you want to risk doing this and re-soldering the wire. Take your time and work nice and slowly. Where can I get it fixed? At the risk of overstating the obvious, look for a good repair facility. There are plenty around - your first move should be to check out the ACE Index. I found an excellent company in Germany that specializes in Rollei repairs, and I've used them twice now. Not cheap, but really good. A full service on my Rolleiflex-T, including fixing two or three problems, costed about DM 300 and resulted in, mechanically and optically, a brand new camera. Worth every penny! Don't expect a bargain deal to be as good as a professional repair. A competent camera repair technician can't be expected to do a halfway decent job for you for the price of a couple of hamburgers. Be suspicious of ridiculously cheap repair companies - trust me, there are no bargain deals! But a serious company will give you a guarantee, and you'll be in safe hands. Is it worth repairing? Not always, no. You'll have to weigh up all kinds of factors: does the repair exceed the value? How long am I going to keep the camera? Would I be better off just looking for another? Do I need it THAT badly? Nice to have or need to have? There's no price on sentimentality. I mean that without the slightest disrespect - If the camera belonged to a family member or loved one, and you'd like to be able to use it again, I fully understand your motivation. In this case, the answer is obvious: the repair has to be done, whatever the cost. But please bear in mind that it might not be possible even for a top notch repair company to obtain parts for it. Even some Nikon parts are getting very scarce, and are often obtainable only after sacrificing another body as a parts camera. The DP-11 metering prisms from the F2A, for instance, are considered irreparable except by one company worldwide - Steve Gandy - so expect to pay heavy money! Steve's web site does at least include some price examples, so you'll have an idea what to expect. I hope I haven't discouraged you too much. If it's a good camera, it probably is worth fixing. If it's not, don't bother. If you feel brave enough to have a go at it yourself, good luck!
Copyright © 2001 by Mike Graham. All rights reserved.
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