| Author | Message | ||
     Gary Turner Rating: N/A |
I bought almost every readily available classic camera repair book & manual I could find. I must have 10 or so. To tell the truth, I found none to be as detailed or informative as I'd like. Some assume you can fill in between the lines. Maybe I missed a few good books? Okay, the books were actually helpful on occasion but I learned much more about camera repair by acquiring 'down and out' practice cameras at low cost (mostly $5 to $15) via eBay and other sellers. After about 10 or 20 'trial & errors' with these clunkers I slowly graduated to better models. I actually repaired & sold some of the clunkers plus built up an important supply of screws, springs, top & bottom plates, screens, misc. parts in the process. Like me, you might download and save camera Internet repair articles via Google Search. Some good & cheap practice cameras: older Petri 35 MX rangefinder, Mamiya/Sekor 500TL (SLR), various cameras with Pronto, Prontor, Compur, Seikosha, Copal lens shutters. One camera a beginner might avoid: Canon Q17 GIII (complex, hard to remove the tiny & tight retainers). Even the Konica S2, similar Minolta Hi-Matic & Yashica Lynx manual shuttered series cameras can be affordable for practice. I won't say I'm ready to replace a focal plane shutter or dig real deep into a lens shutter, but I made good progress over the last 3 years. I can appreciate the professionals who charge $100 or more to fix some of the nicer cameras. It can be a lot of work and you are paying for their experience. Practice, practice and buy the proper tools! Maybe buy a few books too but don't expect the books alone to work any miracles. Good luck! |