CLA or buy more (potentially) faulty second hand goods?

John Koehrer said:

I'd guess people charge a bit for camera repairs could be rationalized pretty easily.

overhead, like initial investment for equipment and tools. Rent, utilities, business license, insurance, telephone, advertising, parts inventory. Oh! did I mention taxes? Do you need to eat and have housing?

You don't make money doing the repairs, you make it by having people working for you. Many small shops pay by commission on the order of 60/40% with the employer getting the 60. Manufacturers by the week or hour.
Assuming a CLA costs $75.00. Mr. workerbee gets $40.00 pretax. Paperwork, looking up the part numbers if needed, whatever piddly shit comes up. Maybe a piece comes back for warrantee work. The boss doesn't pick that up, workerbee has to use their time to make it good. That's time out of their production = no money coming in for that time. (

I've seen posts claim that technician X completely tore a camera down, cleaned & oiled all the pivots, clean and grease all the latch points, connectors on the circuit board, adjust speeds and meter all in two hours.
Oh yeah, the camera works better than new too.

I find it necessary to call a great big BS!

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$75....

I wish. Try $300....per lens

I suppose that's the price of having decent wages in Australia.

Actually, if that is what people are paying in the US (seriously, please, someone confirm!), I would just about ship the lenses off for repair.

I have paid as low as $150, and a lot higher, for lens overhauls. Kind of depends on the lens and what you want.

As a recent reference; I just paid Don Goldberg $135 to optimize my ZM Sonnar 50/1.5 for wide open. He did a good job and I felt it was worth my money.

Tom1956 said:

Those el-cheapos ARE hardened, and they break all the time. So you have to keep buying them--they don't last long before you're back to chewing up screws again. Also the little short skinny handles don't give any leverage. They're junk. They'll turn a toughcase screw into a near impossible nightmare. Maybe some day I'll break down and buy some good tools. Maybe a couple years before I was going to die of old age anyway. I've already made a mess for my executor to have to sort through for my estate sale already.

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I've been using my set of Bergeons since about 1985. No breakages yet, you gets what you pays for; the original set of spare bits is still in the aluminium tube they came in. I also use a couple sets of Starrett miniature screwdrivers, I like the way the handles fit in my hands, and I make special bits out of drillrod ("silver steel" for those in the U.K.) to fit screws as I need them, I must have 40 or so.
If the cheapos break all the time it's because they're made of garbage grade steel, poorly heat treated. Drillrod - or better yet cast steel from old needle files - can be tempered to be hard and very tough.

John Koehrer said:

I'd guess people charge a bit for camera repairs could be rationalized pretty easily.

overhead, like initial investment for equipment and tools. Rent, utilities, business license, insurance, telephone, advertising, parts inventory. Oh! did I mention taxes? Do you need to eat and have housing?

You don't make money doing the repairs, you make it by having people working for you. Many small shops pay by commission on the order of 60/40% with the employer getting the 60. Manufacturers by the week or hour.
Assuming a CLA costs $75.00. Mr. workerbee gets $40.00 pretax. Paperwork, looking up the part numbers if needed, whatever piddly @#!*% comes up. Maybe a piece comes back for warrantee work. The boss doesn't pick that up, workerbee has to use their time to make it good. That's time out of their production = no money coming in for that time. (

I've seen posts claim that technician X completely tore a camera down, cleaned & oiled all the pivots, clean and grease all the latch points, connectors on the circuit board, adjust speeds and meter all in two hours.
Oh yeah, the camera works better than new too.

I find it necessary to call a great big BS!

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You could manure a good size farm with that claim!

I have an arrangement with the camera service engineer I've used for years, he doesn't take pictures and I don't attempt to repair my own equipment. so far it's worked very well and cameras I've been shooting with for thirty and forty years are still in tip top condition

There's going to be an ipo of Alibaba soon. I've decided to jump in with both feet and shoot the wad. If it does anything like Amazon did, then I'll buy lots of nice tools like EvH has. Thanks for the brand--now I know what to look for.

Tom1956 said:

There's going to be an ipo of Alibaba soon. I've decided to jump in with both feet and shoot the wad. If it does anything like Amazon did, then I'll buy lots of nice tools like EvH has. Thanks for the brand--now I know what to look for.

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http://www.ofrei.com/index.html

http://www.ofrei.com/page1363.html

benjiboy said:

I have an arrangement with the camera service engineer I've used for years, he doesn't take pictures and I don't attempt to repair my own equipment. so far it's worked very well and cameras I've been shooting with for thirty and forty years are still in tip top condition

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That's pretty much how I approach things too.

I don't have nearly as much time as I would like for photography. I don't want to be spending any of the limited time that I do have tinkering with cameras.

I assume that anything I get off eBay needs a CLA, and if it doesn't, that's a bonus. I'd rather get a great deal and buy something in non-working condition (if I have a pretty good idea of why it's likely not to be working), and spend the savings on work by a first-rate technician, than buy something that is nominally "working" and have to have it serviced anyway in short order.

Reading this thread just reminds me why i retired. Pros today use digitals, rightfully so. But their old equipment has wound up in the hands of very appreciative hobbiests.

Pros maintained their equipment regularly, they made their bread n butter from it. Hobbiests tend to use their equipment till it dies. Without proper maintenance these old work horses wear n die prematurely.

Yes metals suffer fatigue n old age, but the work horse cameras were designed to be used hard.

The RB67 is way overbuilt n has enough adjustment slack to take up wear for far more use a pro can give in 30 years. What generally kills these cameras are hobbiests abuse, neglect and lack of use. Come time a problem arrises, they toss em because rlacement is much cheaper than a CLA.

I once was able to repair these problem cameras with a minor CLA, restored em for many more years of reliable service.

Once upon a time i could charge $190 to CLA a lens has now dropped to $50. I'd never be able to maintain a business n feed my family on that. So retirement n working out of my home in my spare time, $50 is reasonable to make a couple bucks to buy film n toys.

Its gotten to the point many feel i charge too much so I'd rather not offer service anymore, its a waste of my time.

Id still buy your paper weights if you havent monkied in it? Nothing is worse than buying someones science project.

Learning to do your own repairs is fun n a great hobby. Its not for everyone, but worth finding out if it is. Btw, You really dont need $300 screwdrivers, a nice set of WIHAs will serve you well at $25/ set. Lots of specialty tools can be made n bought fairly cheap from suppliers like MicroTools.

You can find plenty how to info here on the net... Or ask people like myself for help n advice. If its broken, you can't break it!... So why not give it a shot? Besides you can replace it cheaply enough.

David A. Goldfarb said:

I assume that anything I get off eBay needs a CLA, and if it doesn't, that's a bonus.

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Amen!


Lenses vary in quality from sample to sample. If you are happy with what you have then I would get them CLA'd.

I've decided to get at least 1 of the 2 lenses CLA'd. One is a bit harder to find and is a bit of a favourite of mine (110mm F4 PS), so this one gets the service. The other, a 80mm F2.8 PS, is pretty common. I think I might get a second one of these and attempt to repair it myself. The oddest thing that I have found thus far, is that they use JIC head type screws. I have found the hard way that you do need the right screw driver as a Phillips head just won't do.

I am just getting some alternative prices (if I can) to ensure that I am not being duped. I noted that KEH charge $180 to CLA a shuttered lens, so based on that, between $200 to $300 in Australia seems to be on the high side of OK(ish).

Cheers