A quick note about my current posts

[Andreas Thaler]

As you can see, I’m currently in the process of posting service/repair project reports. These are projects from the past few months that I originally published on photo.net and Reddit, rather than on PHOTRIO. Some of these posts are no longer available on Reddit.

Ultimately, everything will be collected in the pinned thread here

Photo equipment from the 1980s: Repair projects and recommendations

so that it is up to date again. But first, I’d like to present the posts here, of course.

I’ve agreed with our moderation team to adjust the frequency of my posts so that it doesn’t become too much. Therefore, from now on, I’ll stick to one post per day. I hope that’s acceptable.

 

[mshchem]

As you can see, I’m currently in the process of posting service/repair project reports. These are projects from the past few months that I originally published on photo.net and Reddit, rather than on PHOTRIO. Some of these posts are no longer available on Reddit.

Ultimately, everything will be collected in the pinned thread here

Photo equipment from the 1980s: Repair projects and recommendations

so that it is up to date again. But first, I’d like to present the posts here, of course.

I’ve agreed with our moderation team to adjust the frequency of my posts so that it doesn’t become too much. Therefore, from now on, I’ll stick to one post per day. I hope that’s acceptable.

Very good to hear from you!!!

Best Regards Mike

 

[MattKing]

As has been said elsewhere Andreas, we are glad to have you here.

 

[koraks]

Thank you for your continued work on documenting these cameras, @Andreas Thaler !

 

[Sean]

Thanks Andreas! We work very hard to preserve the archives here, they aren't going anywhere

 

[Andreas Thaler]

Thank you very much! I'm really glad to hear that

 

[Andreas Thaler]

I’ve finished migrating my posts from the past six months from Reddit and Photo.net to PHOTRIO.

I know that my frequent posting has been a burden on the forum—and certainly on your patience—and I ask for your understanding.

From now on, I’ll have to head back to the workshop to actually get some work done. I’ll be continuing with the Nikon TW20 soon.

Announcement Nikon TW20/Tele Touch 300: A closer look at service and technology

Inspired by @ic-racer excellent work on the Nikon L35AF, I will take a closer look at the Nikon TW20/Tele Touch 300, which is a newer member of the family. The Nikon TW20 (or Tele Touch 300 in America) is a compact auto focus camera released by Nikon in 1989. It was the follow-up model to the...

www.photrio.com

I'm posting a selection of my posts again in the
1980s sticky thread:

Photo equipment from the 1980s: Repair projects and recommendations

I would like to bring together a selection of my previous contributions here in the hope that they will help readers with their work or inspire them to get involved in repairs. It is always worth trying to repair something, because if you do nothing, a camera or lens will definitely remain...

www.photrio.com

 

[retina_restoration]

I'm curious, why did you withdraw from Reddit?

 

[mshchem]

Important work! I look on in amazement.

Recently I was gifted a 1970 Hasselblad 500 c/m, inoperative. In part from seeing your projects and from my own experiences, I opened up the body. I tried my usual application of various solvents and potions, no joy. Still I didn't break anything, put it back together and sent it to KEH. A couple weeks later I have it back in good working order.

 

[Andreas Thaler]

I'm curious, why did you withdraw from Reddit?

I have to give a nuanced answer to that.

On Reddit, I mainly reached young people interested in the DIY topic. The reach there—with thousands of views—is fantastic. There’s a lot of interest in film photography; posts go up every minute.

When you see that, you firmly believe that film isn’t just part of the future—it’s shaping it.

Since I write my posts in a structured, matter-of-fact, and organized way, after a while I started getting comments like „AI slop“. Apparently, I also gave this impression by using DeepL to translate my posts from German to English. To native speakers, this obviously looks as if a bot is the author.

I explained how things actually were, and the moderators supported me, but over time these comments started to get on my nerves. Not only that. Once the accusation is out there that AI is writing the posts, everything comes under suspicion of plagiarism and my reputation is in the gutter.

After making sure my posts would remain, I deleted my Reddit account. Unfortunately, the system then flagged all my posts as spam and blocked them. This alerted the moderators, and they had actually manually restored all my posts within the past month (see links below).

I'm sorry I caused all this trouble. That wasn't my intention.

But I was able to reach a lot of younger people interested in DIY there, so in that sense, my time there was a success. There were passionate moderators and, for the most part, constructive discussions. But it was fast-paced.

Now I'm back, and as long as I can think clearly and work safely, I'll continue documenting these electromechanical SLRs.

PHOTRIO is known as the international hub for discussion on analog photography. I'm delighted to have the opportunity to publish here and contribute to the preservation of these SLRs.

---

We could use your help preserving u/ATHXYZ’s posts

ATHXYZ Repair Repository

 

[Andreas Thaler]

Important work! I look on in amazement.

Thank you!

Once again, there are a lot of submissions—I’m amazed myself

As a trained PR expert with over 25 years of professional experience and, for the past few years, some free time, writing comes easily to me. I do almost everything on my iPhone, which I also use to photograph my projects at the kitchen table.

From now on, I’ll be focusing on larger projects in the “A Closer Look at Service and Technology” series. That takes time and will also take some pressure off the forum

 

[mshchem]

My analog self wonders if you should have this all printed out and stored on a shelf.

 

[Andreas Thaler]

Recently I was gifted a 1970 Hasselblad 500 c/m, inoperative. In part from seeing your projects and from my own experiences, I opened up the body. I tried my usual application of various solvents and potions, no joy. Still I didn't break anything, put it back together and sent it to KEH. A couple weeks later I have it back in good working order.

I would never dare to touch a camera in this category. That’s a job for precision mechanics!

I think it was a good decision to have this movement repaired by a professional.

 

[Andreas Thaler]

My analog self wonders if you should have this all printed out and stored on a shelf.

I thought about writing a book, but that would never be up to date. Plus, I’d have to sell it, and I’m not interested in the financial side of things. My goal is something else entirely: preserving electromechanical SLRs.

For this I think I can reach more people online. And anyone who finds my posts useful can save or print them.

 

[lumoStoria]

On Reddit, I mainly reached young people interested in the DIY topic. The reach there—with thousands of views—is fantastic. There’s a lot of interest in film photography; posts go up every minute.

In contrast to forums like this one, Reddit has more of a "fast question - fast answer" pattern. Due to the rather coarse structuring (like r/AnalogRepair without any subthemes) and the way most users use it (just reading from newest post to older), you may get a lot of views initially but when your post is swept away by the next hundred of posts the number of views dimishes fast. Yes, you can still find the post using Reddit's internal search or external Google search but most of the younger users do not seem to use Reddit this way. Somewhat exaggerated you could say that Reddit's attention span resembles those of a goldfish .

I think, for most repair topics forums like Photrio are the sweet spot between "fast" media like Reddit and a private website.

 

[armadsen]

I really appreciate your work on this Andreas. It's helpful to me personally as I try to learn how to repair my cameras, and it's also something good for the entire community. Please keep up the good work and know that there are lots of us out here that really appreciate it.

P.S. I'm generally very allergic to LLM-writing, but your posts never come across that way to me. I think using LLMs to translate between (human) languages is a very reasonable use of them.

 

[Andreas Thaler]

I really appreciate your work on this Andreas. It's helpful to me personally as I try to learn how to repair my cameras, and it's also something good for the entire community. Please keep up the good work and know that there are lots of us out here that really appreciate it.

P.S. I'm generally very allergic to LLM-writing, but your posts never come across that way to me. I think using LLMs to translate between (human) languages is a very reasonable use of them.

Thank you very much!

As an amateur electronics enthusiast, if I can offer a proven electronics expert something useful in the context of SLRs, that’s a real honor for me

Thanks for your feedback on my use of DeepL.

To me, the English sounds “very American,” but I know my German sentence structure is impossible to shake. In other words, everything’s always a bit too long and convoluted

 

[Ben 4]

As you can see, I’m currently in the process of posting service/repair project reports. These are projects from the past few months that I originally published on photo.net and Reddit, rather than on PHOTRIO. Some of these posts are no longer available on Reddit.

Ultimately, everything will be collected in the pinned thread here

Photo equipment from the 1980s: Repair projects and recommendations

so that it is up to date again. But first, I’d like to present the posts here, of course.

I’ve agreed with our moderation team to adjust the frequency of my posts so that it doesn’t become too much. Therefore, from now on, I’ll stick to one post per day. I hope that’s acceptable.

I was dismayed to see you and your posts disappear from Photrio earlier (last year?), so it has come as a very pleasant surprise to see them popping up again!

 

[Andreas Thaler]

I was dismayed to see you and your posts disappear from Photrio earlier (last year?), so it has come as a very pleasant surprise to see them popping up again!

Thank you!

It was nice to check out social media for a change and spread the word there

It was a valuable experience, and I met a lot of nice, knowledgeable people.

Now I'm back home.

 

[Sean]

Awesome, thanks Andreas!

 

[chuckroast]

I'm curious, why did you withdraw from Reddit?

Have you BEEN on Reddit. It's really awful.

 

[Andreas Thaler]

Awesome, thanks Andreas!

It’s impressive what you’ve accomplished and continue to do, Sean. Without your work, we wouldn’t all be gathered here today. And film photography wouldn’t have an intellectual hub.

So, with all due respect, I’d like to thank you and our team of moderators for their work.

 

[Andreas Thaler]

Have you BEEN on Reddit. It's really awful.

Yes, I was there.

It’s a huge event with incredible energy. People are taking photos, buying cameras, and developing film. Mostly completely carefree.

But unlike us veterans here, the younger generation approaches it with complete ease. Experimenting and learning together is how they progressing there. It’s just part of the job that the same questions come up every day. No one minds; it provides an opportunity to communicate with one another. One of the main functions of social media.

Delving deeply into the subject isn’t the main focus, even though there’s impressive work on display there as well.

For me, that’s the lifeblood that keeps film alive. It’s a fact that there are also people there to whom that doesn’t apply.

All of this helps drive film sales, encourages people to dig their parents’ and grandparents‘ cameras out of the closet, and keeps professional repair shops busy. This ensures the future of film.

But that’s only part of the picture. Without traditional forums like PHOTRIO, the foundation upon which social media is built would not exist. The knowledge that has been accumulated and documented here on PHOTRIO nourishes the community and serves as a point of reference for it—even if that isn’t always openly acknowledged.

The fact that PHOTRIO is recommended when it comes to solving complex problems is a testament to the quality and indispensability of our joint work here

 

[Tel]

I was dismayed to see you and your posts disappear from Photrio earlier (last year?), so it has come as a very pleasant surprise to see them popping up again!

+1