What Is Your Favorite or Easiest Camera Type to Repair

[ic-racer]

I know there are plenty of "Least Favorite," but lets hear about your favorite or easiest.

For me the easiest is the Argus C2 C3 "Brick."
My favorite camera to repair is Yashica FX-3.

I'm interested in hearing about cameras that are good, not because of great lenses, cool features or hype, but cameras that can be repaired over and over that will last a life time.

 

[Chuck1]

Pinhole

 

[gone]

Putting a battery in my Nikkormat EL is almost like doing a repair. What were they thinking?

 

[Chuck1]

Putting a battery in my Nikkormat EL is almost like doing a repair. What were they thinking?

That was poor design, great camera...

 

[cmacd123]

a lot depends on the complexity of the given camera. simple ones with guess focusing are a lot easier to get into than ones with a rangefinder. Plain shutters with no meter also are less complicated.
some models have a common problem that is easy to deal with if the camera is otherwise in good shape. (Minolta Shutter capacitor- here is looking at you)

in SLRs, minolta and pentax tend to be stright forward. the older the better as far as dealing with usoldering wires.

 

[Dan Daniel]

Rolleiflexes. The mechanics are clean, the parts are well-finished, the function is smooth.

And they were designed from the ground up to be serviced. These were production machines for professionals, and like any good machine you plan on them breaking down or wearing out from hard use.

A (meterless) Rolleiflex E3 is probably the best design I have worked on. All the improvements over the years that led up to the F, but without the meter coupling and its complexity. Even the depth of field indicator coupling was redesigned on the E3 (and later Fs) to work around the weaknesses of the older design.

 

[Tel]

My first "pro" camera was a Nikon F. I started out shooting theatrical stuff (mostly documenting my own work for my portfolio) and I needed the reliability and precision of the Nikons. I've always had an F or F2 and it's always been my preferred 35mm still camera. Because of the lighting situation in theatre I learned early on to meter off-camera, and never went back. So I learned to prefer a simpler camera with manual control and no meter. As I began to tinker with my cameras in the late 90s and early noughts (when repair shops were getting harder to find) I quickly came to prefer cameras with simpler mechanisms and good engineering. By then I was working with cinematographers (who also metered off-camera) and began to tinker with movie cameras too. I picked up several Konvas and Kinor 35mm motion picture cameras for my own projects and of necessity learned how to repair those. Again, simplicity of design ruled.

So as a shooter, I already preferred simplicity and reliability together with an absence of "features" that made decisions for me. A meterless F2 is still my go-to 35mm still camera and I've come to rely on Mamiya C2 and C220 when I shoot 120 for the same reasons. Functions are mostly mechanical and visible to the eye and the parts are machined to a high standard and interchangeable between cameras.

Favorites to work on: Nikon F2, Mamiya C2, Arri 2C and 16BL, Kinor 35N(H), Primo Jr/Sawyers Mk IV (I shoot a lot of 127 and the Topcon lenses are good).

 

[Tel]

PS: To be totally honest, my standout favorite repair/restoration job was my Rochester Optical 1901 Long-focus Premo. Though that mostly entailed working in wood and leather with a little brass engineering. Does that count?

 

[flavio81]

That was poor design, great camera...

I disagree, that's one of the best places for a battery -- free from enviromental conditions.

 

[flavio81]

I know there are plenty of "Least Favorite," but lets hear about your favorite or easiest.

For me the easiest is the Argus C2 C3 "Brick."
My favorite camera to repair is Yashica FX-3.

I'm interested in hearing about cameras that are good, not because of great lenses, cool features or hype, but cameras that can be repaired over and over that will last a life time.

I like working on the Bronica ETRS / ETRSi, they're friendly.

I like disassembling my Contax IIa, it's easy too.

The Pentax 67 i also find friendly, however the plastic panels can break if you're not careful.

 

[BobD]

Retina cameras because there are plenty of Chris Sherlock videos on the subject.

 

[Tel]

I like to think of Sherlock as a master teacher--the lessons learned by watching him work translate to many other cameras. (But I've been tempted to pick up a Retina just because...)

 

[4season]

I like working on the Bronica ETRS / ETRSi, they're friendly.

I'd call it "friendly-ish" : There are an awful lot of fasteners used to hold the body covers in place, in a variety of different sizes. And when removing the lens mount from the camera body, there are all those shims to deal with. Lucky for me that I measured the thicknesses of these and noted the original location of each one!

IMO, Bronica ETRSi is one of the few cameras which looks cheaper on the outside than it does on the inside.

 

[ic-racer]

PS: To be totally honest, my standout favorite repair/restoration job was my Rochester Optical 1901 Long-focus Premo. Though that mostly entailed working in wood and leather with a little brass engineering. Does that count?

Yes!

 

[ic-racer]

Retina cameras because there are plenty of Chris Sherlock videos on the subject.

Yes that’s a good one; the more information available the better.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Any camera or lens that does not need to be worked on.

 

[flavio81]

IMO, Bronica ETRSi is one of the few cameras which looks cheaper on the outside than it does on the inside.

Agree!!

 

[j-dogg]

FED-2. I have literally fixed a shutter speed issue on one by pulling up on the shutter speed selector and sliding a drop or two of sewing machine oil down the shaft. One of my FEDs has been working like that for 5 years now and probably 50 rolls of film by now.

Now that I have gotten more experienced in camera repair I would never do that but it's very easy to work on.

 

[AgX]

I am surprised by the replies, as I expected the Zenit series at the top.


But I see that simply designed not necessary means simple to repair.

 

[Nitroplait]

I read somewhere that the Ricohflex TLR with the geared lenses should be very easy to repair, just hearsay - I never worked on one.

 

[Tel]

I am surprised by the replies, as I expected the Zenit series at the top.


But I see that simply designed not necessary means simple to repair.

I think that ease of repair relies on both simple design and very exact manufacturing tolerances, so that parts are interchangeable. Many of the FSU cameras failed on the second requirement. (I'm thinking of the improvements Gevorg Vartanyan made to the Kiev cameras particularly.)

 

[Helge]

Agfa Syncro Box. Made to be serviced. And without special tools too. Like all cameras should be.

 

[4season]

I am surprised by the replies, as I expected the Zenit series at the top.

But I see that simply designed not necessary means simple to repair.

Zenit is pretty simple, but Nikon F and Nikkormat FTN are better cameras, Nikkormat often sells for similar prices - in USA - as Zenit, and IMO the effort needed to service them isn't much different.

 

[flavio81]

I think that ease of repair relies on both simple design and very exact manufacturing tolerances, so that parts are interchangeable. Many of the FSU cameras failed on the second requirement. (I'm thinking of the improvements Gevorg Vartanyan made to the Kiev cameras particularly.)

This, this and this.

And add, good quality materials. I'm already traumatized by finding some rusted screws in a soviet camera, which made them impossible to remove.

Also, add to that list, good service manuals. I'm opening a separate thread on Kiev 88 cameras because of the poor documentation available in english.

 

[j-dogg]

I am surprised by the replies, as I expected the Zenit series at the top.


But I see that simply designed not necessary means simple to repair.

Early Zenit was a walk in the park because they were the same as a Zorki but they added a prism and all the stuff is interchangeable. I've done the full CLA on my Zenit-S from 1959