I would have gladly paid $300!
Well, this 'resurgance' still makes for a rather tiny market if you extrapolate it to the demand for camera repairs. Not exactly an ecosystem that's going to keep a repairman in every modest city in employment. So you end up with only a handful qualified repairmen in a country - or a continent. It's kind of a logical consequence.
Good illustration. A repair needs to run around $300 or so a piece, on average, for it to constitute a reasonable income in a developed, Western nation. This is assuming that the costs of parts and materials are nearly negligible, as are investments in tools and training etc.
I was driving on one of the busiest highways in the country yesterday and mentioned to my son that it's amazing what the car industry has managed to do. You look around now at any of the 100s of cars that are driving around you and almost none of them are more than 10 years old......
not using mechanical cameras does them the most harm!
I would have gladly paid $300!
There are still manufactures of tubes in China and Russia, theres also plenty of good old tubes still out there. Modern circuit boards will fail and not be repairable, but its still viable to make a solid state or tube amp. Ive made several.
There’s no question that electronic cameras, either film or digital, can do an excellent job of taking pictures, but I’m interested in how things work. You can open up a mechanical camera and eventually figure out which part does what, then push the button and enjoy all the whizzing and spinning. Take apart an electronic camera and all you see is little black squares and some wires. Nothing much moves besides the shutter, so they’re really kind of boring inside. Isn’t photography supposed to be fun?
Take apart an electronic camera and all you see is little black squares and some wires.
The average age of a vehicle in the U.S. is now 12.5 years
After discussing this with top Hasselblad repair people, I've ben told this is not at all true.
We heard it over and over again:'keep your mechanical cameras; at least they can be still repaired if something goes wrong. My experience, including a recent Nikon FM failure, is quite different:It is actually very hard to find a repair service for old mechanical cameras. And if you should be lucky enough to find one, hope not to need spare parts, because there are none. Furthermore, The whole deal will cost you more than a new camera!
It is theoretically possible to keep a mechanical camera going indefinitely.
Don't forget about JJ Tubes from the Slovak Republic. The invasion of the Ukraine put a stop to the Russian manufactured, American distributed tubes, but somehow they're now allowed back into the west.
It is theoretically possible to keep a mechanical camera going indefinitely. I think that is the appeal. The practicality of the matter is something else entirely.
The same is true for an electronic one.
Don't forget about JJ Tubes from the Slovak Republic. The invasion of the Ukraine put a stop to the Russian manufactured, American distributed tubes, but somehow they're now allowed back into the west.
Stuff is manufactured all over the world.
Do you not like Mike Matthews or EH for some reason.?
We heard it over and over again:'keep your mechanical cameras; at least they can be still repaired if something goes wrong. My experience, including a recent Nikon FM failure, is quite different:It is actually very hard to find a repair service for old mechanical cameras. And if you should be lucky enough to find one, hope not to need spare parts, because there are none. Furthermore, The whole deal will cost you more than a new camera!
After discussing this with top Hasselblad repair people, I've ben told this is not at all true.
However reality takes over hence components, cables, sockets and board go bad.
About 15 years ago, when analogue photography was nearly dead and every body got rid of their 'old stuff' and jumped on the digital train, I bought a second used Hasselblad 500C/M, a Planar 80mm and a Distagon 60mm for less than twice as nothing, and an A12 for free.
Then I got these CLA'd and keep them now as a spare set, and have it 'working' once a month to keep it in good shape.
My more extensive and initial set is used regularly...
Anyway, when eventually all spare parts are gone, I can take the most worn for cannibalizing (which would be sad but inevitable)...
BTW, this is what a friend, living in France, does: he has 6 Citroën traction avant but only one is in full working order, 4 are donors and one is waiting for a spare part to be found...
I was driving on one of the busiest highways in the country yesterday and mentioned to my son that it's amazing what the car industry has managed to do. You look around now at any of the 100s of cars that are driving around you and almost none of them are more than 10 years old. But 30 years ago, you would normally see over half of them were over 10 years old and a large portion of them were over 20 years old. They've becomes so reliable. ... Are "reliable" and "disposable" synonyms?
I don't like Russia for a very specifc reason.
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