Episode 34: The Future of Camera Repairs

We're back!  It's been three weeks since our last episode, so that just gave us an extra week's worth of time to think of questions to ask our two special guests!  Returning is Jess Ibarra from Viva La Film in New South Wales, Australia who is Theo's source for CLAs and always offers her insights into the general repair of cameras. Joining Jess is Ryan Jones, owner of Pro Camera in Charlottesville, Virginia.  Ryan was a repair technician at Pro Camera for six years before the opportunity to take over the shop was presented to him, which he accepted.  As owner, Ryan has a unique way of accepting new work.  Unlike other shops, he does not accept new work all the time, but rather does it in waves.  This business model works extremely well for him in terms of managing expectations for his customers and also helping to prevent burn out from non stop work. Although we have talked about camera repair on other episodes of the podcast, this one has heavy focus on the future.  How did both Ryan and Jess learn how to repair cameras, what are the methods being used today by the current crop of repair people, and what is being done to attract new people to repairing cameras? Joining them this week is returning guest Alex Dietrich and first time caller Steve Rosenbach who ask for tips on repairing their own cameras and what everyone's thoughts are on a certain Nicca camera.  Of course, there's a lot of other random GAS and topics related to collecting, shooting, and shade tree percussive maintenance. As always, the topics we discuss on the Camerosity Podcast are decided by you.  The guys and I rarely know where each episode is going to go until it happens, so if you'd like to join us on a future episode, be sure to look out for our show announcements on our Camerosity Podcast Facebook page, and right here on mikeeckman.com.  We record every other Monday and announcements, along with the Zoom link are typically shared 2-3 days in advance. So stay tuned, and if you'd like to ask us a question or give us some topics to discuss, look for our show announcement for Episode 35, which we will record on Monday, October 24th! This Week's Episode Introducing Ryan Jones and Pro Camera / Jess Repairs While Podcasting / Steve Buys a Minolta SR-1 Mike Wants to Fix His Arsenal Salyut Soviet SLR / Jess Has a Soviet Camera Mentor Named Alex If you Want to Shoot A Soviet 6x6, Get a Kiev 6C or 60 They're More Reliable than the Salyut Paul Has a Broken Yashicaflex and Nikon S / Can you Fix Hazy Nikon Rangefinder Windows? If You Want to Collect Nikon Rangefinders, Get a Nikon SP, If You Want to Shoot Them, Get a Nikon S2 Alex Sends his Black Leica and Olympus OM-1 to Ryan Replacing Leica Shutter Curtains / Finding Curtain Material is Getting Difficult / 3D Printing to the Rescue / Titanium Curtains Is Anthony's Canon EF Worth Repairing? / Anthony's Voigtländer Ultramatic CS Needs Help Too Resilvering Mirrors / Canon Pellix and Pellicle Mirrors Petri Color Corrected Super Green-O-Matics are The Best Worst Camera / Petri's Achilles Heel Was Their Own Shutters Ryan Likes to Repair Similar Cameras in Batches Then Move On Training the Next Generation of Young People to Repair Cameras Learning from the Cranky Old Guys / How Do You Find a Mentor? / You Have to Be More Anal Than Your Most Anal Client As Cameras Age, New Problems Happen That Has Never Happened Before / A CLAd 80 Year Old Camera Is Still 80 Years Old Ryan Repairs Cameras in Waves Every 6 Weeks / Managing Expectations In Most SLRs the Shutter Release Doesn't Fire the Shutter, It Releases the Mirror and the Mirror Fires the Shutter Percussive Maintenance and Shadetree Repairs Will Only Work Temporarily What Tools Should You Buy To Start Repairing Cameras / Richard Haw's Website and Learn Camera Repair Yashica YF and Nicca III-L Cameras / How Repairable Are Certain Cameras? What is the Next Camera You Send for Repair / Canon IV Sb / Nikkor 105 f/2.5 / Voigtländer Superb and Vitessa / Leica M3 wit