Miles Upton Exakta repair

[norphot]

This may strictly belong in the medium format category, but the amount of Exakta 35mm cameras vastly outnumber the 6x6 ones, so I'll try posting here.

After a few emails back and forth I sent my Exakta 6x6 to Miles Upton, author of the book "Ultimate Exakta Repair" for a shutter curtain change and CLA. After he confirmed he had received the camera in september (5 months ago) and that work would start "in a few days", I have received no further response to emails. Before he received the camera, replies were usually quick... If anyone has any suggestions, or similar experience with Mr. Upton, I would appreciate input here or via PM. Thanks!

 

[ac12]

Do you have his phone number?

 

[Trask]

I hope this all works out for you -- please let us know. Knowing of a good Exakta tech is a worthwhile bit of information.

 

[norphot]

I only have a landline number from the white pages. Tried calling, but no answer. Left a message, but no reply after about a week. Of course many things could have happened, and I'll still give him the benefit of the doubt. However I noticed an ebay user with a matching name selling his Exakta repair book about a month or more after he stopped answering emails, which makes me think nothing sudden happened. I will contact a lawyer, and see how it goes. I'm still thankful if others can share their experience with Mr. Upton: e.g. does it seem usual/unusual to have to wait this long? If something like this has happened before, how was it solved?

 

[EdColorado]

I have the book you mentioned. Its very well put together and has loads of information. When I purchased it Miles responded quickly to my message and was great to do business with. Not much to go on, but I was very happy with our transaction. Your issue here make me wonder if something has happened to, or in Miles' life that is causing a problem.

 

[norphot]

Thanks for the reply. That is useful to know. Yes, I was quite surprised too, as I got quick replies before. I'm happy to give a bit leeway, but after almost a half year without a reply, I feel I need to do something. I am in Europe, and cannot go there to pick it up myself. Hope he is in good health, and it works out somehow.

Dag

 

[norphot]

I thought I should update on my progress. After about 8 months, I got a reply from Mr. Upton. I understand there was some kind of family matter, but that he is back to doing repairs now. I would still have appreciated some kind of reply to mail/phone calls during this time. However, in the end I think he handled it in a fair way: he apologized and gave a reasonable discount, and returned the camera quickly after this. In general I will say the quality of repair is very high: he did a full CLA of my non-working Exakta 6x6 (pre war) and two lenses, including changing the shutter curtains and testing/adjusting the shutter speeds. I believe the number of people who can service this camera is very small, but he is clearly one of them. While everything looks and works as it should, I should note I found a few tiny pinholes in the shutter curtain which can be seen in photos. Due to the difficulty of repairing my camera and replacing the shutter (which might be more beat up/bent than usual), I understand this was very difficult to avoid, and he has also offered to repair it free of charge (probably I can also fix it using some acrylic paint). To summarize: I would recommend Mr. Upton based on his repair skill, but make sure he has time to repair your camera, and try to agree on a fixed deadline beforehand.