Essex Camera Services: Out of Business?

[David Lyga]

The REAL problem, Trask, is that we do not want to hear what you just said. We 'deflect' that bad news. But it is TRUE news. Why should any repairman bother with the mass market gems of yesteryear? And I, myself, am guilty of such wishful thinking but posting this reality forces me to come to grips with the truth. - David Lyga

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Following on David's comments: if I, as a soon-to-be retiree, decided that I'd become a camera repairman focusing on one or two particular makes, what do you think they should be, putting aside Leica and Hasselblad?

There's a good reason to put aside Hasselblad - the buy-in to become a Hasselblad repair tech is quite high, as they require some specialized, proprietary tools to fully service the cameras that cost thousands of dollars apiece. I'd look at Rolleis - as far as I know they don't require expensive proprietary tools, and the market for servicing will bear the price you want to charge. Nikon would be the other brand - they have such a cult following (especially the earlier cameras like the F/F2/F3), and there are so many of them out there that you'll have plenty of demand for your services. Canon would be a third good option, for similar reasons to Nikon, although there would be less demand I think due to the general abandonment of the FD mount not only by Canon but by their customers as well.

 

[waynecrider]

Following on David's comments: if I, as a soon-to-be retiree, decided that I'd become a camera repairman focusing on one or two particular makes, what do you think they should be, putting aside Leica and Hasselblad?

I agree with FC. Probably Nikon first and for a second, uh, hard. Actually there's quite a few good guy's around servicing particular brands with alot of experience and alot of parts. I will say that of the type of repairs I've needed that were left undone for one reason or another, it was lens work being usually oil on blades, lens seals or dust, broken lens parts or meters especially in K1000's and Spotmatic's. Now if you want to collimate lenses you could possibly have a good business or you could set up a optical bench and test lenses.