As a former Canon Australia camera tech if you want to send it to Australia I can recommend a couple of ex-Canon Australia trained technicians who are expert in most Canon FD cameras.
To be honest asking for "perfection" from a 40 year old electro mechanical camera could be asking a bit much. You do get what you pay for. I can service a AE1 Program in under 2 hours - this includes removing the mirror box so you can not just lubricate the mirror governor (the main cause of the squeak), but also clean the shutter release & AE magnets, plus the AE resisitor plate.. I also relubricate the shutter rollers and guides so the shutter curtains run consistantly. Then I clean the release switches, the shutter switches, the shutter and release magnets - then reassemble and adjust...oh - and I'll replace all the light seals - in the back and in the mirror box..
So how much are you prepared to pay for 2 hours solid work? Most people baulk when I say I will service their camera for $120 AUS..I don't think $60 a hour is unreasonable.....so I usually charge people around $90 to do a service because I know the cameras, and they are usually not a problem to service...
Problem? How can you have a problem servicing a camera? I mean when I sent it to you it was working perfectly...yes - the mirror was a bit slow, and it did squeak, and the shutter speeds were a little off..but it was working...
You need to remember these cameras are 30+ years old, and things happen. I don't like working on AE1 and A1 cameras - the actualy circuit board goes brittle with age (not always, but it happens). So you go and do a service on a camera, put it back together - and it won't work! An hour and a half later you've found which tracks on the circuit board have broken and jumped them (the record I can remember was 7 breaks in a AE1 flex - out of a total of maybe 12 tracks that could have broken??). Can you charge for the extra work? No....
The next problem is a lack of parts. This has been a problem for over 15 years. You just can't get new parts to repair FD cameras anymore....And I'm not talking wierd parts - shutter release magnets, rewind knobs, main IC for AT1, tungsten wire (the wire that connects the ASA dial to the shutter reelase dial on some A series cameras), T90 shutters (or even new circuit boards or magnet assemblies), T70 motors, T50 & 70 shutter blades..and don't even ask about lenses.....I have a NFD300/2.8 sitting there with a damaged rear mount - can't get a part to fix it......
So for me it's not so much a question of finding someone to repair something, but finding someone who will tell you if the camera you are sending them is worth spending the money and time on.....
Cheers
Andrew
PS - for the record I used to repair many and varied cameras, and have always tried to do my repairs correctly without any short cuts...but I've never repaired a Minolta SRT series camera correctly....a little know fact - to do a full service on one you need to dismantle it and replace the light seals (like you see in the back door and on the mirror buffer). Only thing is on a SRT there are 21 of them - including under the prism, and behind the shutter unit.....
Only met 2 people who ever did them correctly - and one of them was the camera technician who while working for Minolta in Japan wrote the SRT 101 service manual ... (he came out to Australia in the 70's to head up the local Minolta repair department).
