Repairs: Who pays that price?

[Paul Howell]

Depends on the state and the city, California minimum wage is now $20, here in Arizona $16, the federal minimum wage is still $7.25.

 

[neilt3]

$130 USD PER HOUR? You're not serious, I hope.
I don't believe there is a camera repair technician on Earth that makes anything close to that figure. If - as a repair tech - you are getting $20 per hour, you're doing well.

$130 ph ? Leica repair shop perhaps ?
Slap a red dot on anything and the price goes up .
I'm a gardener . Hmmmm , maybe it's time to change trades !

No, I am self-taught and only work for myself, I don't earn anything from it and I don't want to.

I really enjoy my freedom in this regard

When you do something you enjoy for your self , it's worthwhile and a pleasure to do .
As soon as you start getting paid to do it , along with time constraints and deadlines etc , all the fun goes out of it and it becomes a choir .

I enjoy my photography.
People ask me if I'd do jobs for them , such as photographing their weddings .
I refuse , that's my idea of hell on earth!!

Do stuff you enjoy for yourself , not for a living .
Otherwise when you get some time off from work , you end up working !

 

[Philippe-Georges]

Isn't minimum wage in USA more around $13 rather than $130, so the cost should be $117 for the repair.

I don't know for the USA, but over here a fully trained technician, with a diploma, is payed more than just the minimum wage (le Smic).

 

[Pieter12]

$130 USD PER HOUR? You're not serious, I hope.
I don't believe there is a camera repair technician on Earth that makes anything close to that figure. If - as a repair tech - you are getting $20 per hour, you're doing well.

If the tech is getting $20/hr, you're going to pretty much get what you pay for.

 

[titrisol]

$100~150/h sounds fair, it is much less than what we pay welders and electricians in some jobs
A $300 for a camera service is extremely reasonable; and even $450 (like Yashicas) is not outrageous either

The kind of job posted by the OP is definitely a bear

 

[Donald Qualls]

Isn't minimum wage in USA more around $13 rather than $130, so the cost should be $117 for the repair.

In some places it's higher, but the Federally established minimum wage (states can set it higher, but not lower) is still only $7.25/hr. Shameful. No one can live on that, even in a rural small town, never mind a major city. And never mind if they have children...

 

[koraks]

Moderator note: I've removed a couple of comments that were politically charged. It's easy for a thread to devolve into that direction if minimum wages are being discussed; it sort of comes with the territory. So maybe this is a good moment to steer the discussion back into the direction of camera repairs, and away from governmental policies.

 

[Andreas Thaler]

Moderator note: I've removed a couple of comments that were politically charged. It's easy for a thread to devolve into that direction if minimum wages are being discussed; it sort of comes with the territory. So maybe this is a good moment to steer the discussion back into the direction of camera repairs, and away from governmental policies.

You can't discuss such topics without considering society and politics, it's all connected. So my participation in my own thread no longer makes any sense.

 

[snusmumriken]

If I was a repair technician, I would be buying up fixable cameras, and selling the ones that proved easy to repair. If I was buying a camera, I would buy it from such a repairer. Well actually, I did: I bought a Rollei 35 from a repair technician who had just serviced it to take on holiday with his wife. (Obviously the wife had priority, but the camera had to tag along too.) I got it right after the holiday.

 

[Donald Qualls]

I got my Kiev 2 from Oleg in Ukraine, who's been fixing Contax and Kiev cameras for a long time. I wonder if there's someone around (in the US) who could go through my Rollei 35 more or less affordably?

 

[RezaLoghme]

If a full CLA is 500 EUR or US$ and lasts 10 years, its 50 p.a.
Is that "too much"?
Maybe you should find a cheaper hobby, such as table tennis.

 

[ic-racer]

I don't know for the USA, but over here a fully trained technician, with a diploma, is payed more than just the minimum wage (le Smic).

I'm not a 'fully trained technician' none of my 4 degrees is in camera repair. So minimum wage for my geographic location is all I'm going to save doing the repair myself.

My comment was to support the argument that one shoud send the camera to an expert.

To state it another way, I'm not saving $500 (if the expert charges that), realistically I'm only saving minimum wage rate doing it myself.

 

[Pieter12]

I'm not a 'fully trained technician' none of my 4 degrees is in camera repair. So minimum wage for my geographic location is all I'm going to save doing the repair myself.

My comment was to support the argument that one shoud send the camera to an expert.

To state it another way, I'm not saving $500 (if the expert charges that), realistically I'm only saving minimum wage rate doing it myself.

Not sure I follow your logic. If you do the repairs, no one is paying you. If you know the price of doing the repairs and you do them yourself instead, you have saved whatever that cost might have been (less parts and supplies, of course).

 

[awty]

Thankfully there are way more working F4's than people using them. I have three.

Ive been completely self employed for most of my working life, for every $/hr you earn you need to work at least an equal amount of time running the business. You work on an annual income and then work out how much to charge to get that and be competitive (also factoring returns, because repair old things has a high rate of returns). If you cant do that stick to working for someone who can and enjoy your stress free hobby.

Hobbies and business should be kept separate if you want to earn a living. Ive been working on old watches lately, because cameras aren't fiddly enough.

 

[Bill Burk]

You do not have to work on troublesome cameras. Buy three F4, fix the easy ones.

 

[loccdor]

There are other options than a camera repair guy charging a fixed price and returning a working camera. For example, the last two cameras I sent off, which turned me off on the idea of contacting any more repair services. One, after $300 and a trip halfway around the world, got returned with the same problem I sent it off for, and a lot of excuses. The other, after more than a year, still sits in the workshop of a repairer, who tries to work on it once every year or so, but so far "cannot open it up". These were people both highly recommended.

I was reading today on the concept of a skill collapse. So much knowledge is getting lost. The market price is what people are willing to pay for something, but what happens when you can no longer find the proficiency in the skill itself. Then I suppose we all make due with less. At my current job, there were 4 people with my specific specialized skill, now I am the only one left. Reasonable for them to go - the raises barely track inflation and management makes wildly unpopular decisions. Seems to be happening all over the place. What happens when I go? It takes years to transfer the knowledge but you'll be lucky if anyone is willing to spend more than a couple weeks. The last person with the knowledge leaves and another area becomes unsupportable.

 

[Pieter12]

There are other options than a camera repair guy charging a fixed price and returning a working camera. For example, the last two cameras I sent off, which turned me off on the idea of contacting any more repair services. One, after $300 and a trip halfway around the world, got returned with the same problem I sent it off for, and a lot of excuses. The other, after more than a year, still sits in the workshop of a repairer, who tries to work on it once every year or so, but so far "cannot open it up". These were people both highly recommended.

I was reading today on the concept of a skill collapse. So much knowledge is getting lost. The market price is what people are willing to pay for something, but what happens when you can no longer find the proficiency in the skill itself. Then I suppose we all make due with less. At my current job, there were 4 people with my specific specialized skill, now I am the only one left. Reasonable for them to go - the raises barely track inflation and management makes wildly unpopular decisions. Seems to be happening all over the place. What happens when I go? It takes years to transfer the knowledge but you'll be lucky if anyone is willing to spend more than a couple weeks. The last person with the knowledge leaves and another area becomes unsupportable.

Maybe they're hoping AI can pick up the skills.

 

[awty]

$130 ph ? Leica repair shop perhaps ?
Slap a red dot on anything and the price goes up .
I'm a gardener . Hmmmm , maybe it's time to change trades !

That makes good business sense, Leica's are well built, relatively easy to work on and continually go up in value. Last time I had a quote on a full strip down and service of a M3 was a $800 plus parts and he had a 6 months waiting list.
Mean while f4's cost the same they did 6 years ago.

I only buy broken cameras and fix them myself for entertainment, couldn't be bothered reselling them because the returns wouldn't be worth the hassle. I can make more money by lunch time in my work, than I could make spending all week buying and selling cameras.

 

[RezaLoghme]

If you are able to repair a complex electro-mechanical-optical device like a camera yourself, you most likely have spent a lot of time getting there. That time has a price tag.

I can pay 500 EUR for a Hasselblad CLA, or I could invest many, many hours to become that Hasselblad repair expert myself. If a V-System camera needs a CLA every 10 years, and I expect to use mine for the next 30 years (let's hope so!), then the overall investment of a 3rd party CLA is still much lower than DIY.

I also pay the CLA guy for having worked on other cameras before, not only for working on mine. Etc.

 

[Philippe-Georges]

I'm not a 'fully trained technician' none of my 4 degrees is in camera repair. So minimum wage for my geographic location is all I'm going to save doing the repair myself.

My comment was to support the argument that one shoud send the camera to an expert.

To state it another way, I'm not saving $500 (if the expert charges that), realistically I'm only saving minimum wage rate doing it myself.

To my very personal opinion, people, who ever they are, should be respectfully treated and rewarded if they do good and do to satisfaction what was their commission.

A well done DIY earns admiration, a well done professional job earns an appropriate reward, in both cases respect and common sense is the guideline...

PS: this is not a political statement.

 

[RezaLoghme]

Exactly.

Why should I expect a highly skilled specialist who is key to my hobby only charging minimum wage, like someone flipping burgers!?

Imagine knocking on Laurent Gerbaud's door, offering him "minimum wage", hahaha.

I hold artisans in very high regard, their skills will hopefully never be replaced by computers.

 

[Philippe-Georges]

Exactly.

Why should I expect a highly skilled specialist who is key to my hobby only charging minimum wage, like someone flipping burgers!?

Imagine knocking on Laurent Gerbaud's door, offering him "minimum wage", hahaha.

I hold artisans in very high regard, their skills will hopefully never be replaced by computers.

Please don't tempt me with chocolade from Gerbaud!

 

[RezaLoghme]

I think "Chocolate" is too vulgar a word to describe their products. The "Mondrian" collection (my favourite) looks like it has been built by former Hasselblad technicians!

 

[Philippe-Georges]

I think "Chocolate" is too vulgar a word to describe their products. The "Mondrian" collection (my favourite) looks like it has been built by former Hasselblad technicians!

You are right and I am sorry, I did not want to be disrespectful!

The 'Mondrian' collection is indeed heavenly but the Collection Ligne Blanche au Fleur de Sel de Guérande is my favorite, not to mention his divine Pâtes à Tartiner!

 

[MattKing]

Moderator note: I've removed a couple of comments that were politically charged. It's easy for a thread to devolve into that direction if minimum wages are being discussed; it sort of comes with the territory. So maybe this is a good moment to steer the discussion back into the direction of camera repairs, and away from governmental policies.

You can't discuss such topics without considering society and politics, it's all connected. So my participation in my own thread no longer makes any sense.

PS: this is not a political statement.

For clarity, from a moderator's point of view:
Respectful discussions about value for photographic related work and related costs are on-topic and fine.
Discussions about general governmental and societal policies about minimum wage legislation are "politically charged".
Not surprisingly, and in fact quite photographically, it is a question of focus.