Where To Send An Antique Camera For A Clean Lube And Adjust
Clean, Lube, Conform
Should you pay for a CLA when you purchase a used camera?
It's always a tough conclusion whether to get a photographic camera repaired, particularly when the price of the repair is more than than the cost of the camera. My communication to readers back when I was East Coast Editor ofCamera & Darkroommagazine was that itisworth itifyou intend to use the photographic camera. Granted, y'all can "get lucky" and buy a photographic camera that doesn't need a CLA, just the peace of mind is something that seems worth the expense, at least to me. For instance, I once paid $160 for a Canon Canonet rangefinder, when the going rate was almost $60-$75. The reason? The i I purchased had just had a full $85 CLA. Now IknowI don't have to worry almost information technology quitting on me, or well-nigh when I ought to have information technology serviced.
It doesn't seem to make sense to accept the piece of work done from a hardboiled economic standpoint. Information technology's non worth it if you intend to try to get your money dorsum out of the camera very soon. But consider that the closest thing you can buy today to, say, a $150 used Pentax MX with a 50/1.4 lens is a Nikon FM3a, which costs minimum $500 ($489 plus shipping for a gray-market chrome 1 from B&H)sanslens. The MX is probably meliorate-built (although the Nikon has a better shutter), and a Pentax SMCP-M 50/one.four lens is certainly equally skillful as a modern Nikkor. Consider that a $150 MX plus $150 worth of piece of work is even so $200 below the price of the new Nikon, and you still oasis't got a lens for the Nikon. Looking at it that way, a rehabilitated oldster looks like a bargain.
The first time I paid more than for service than a camera was worth, it was a sort of hurdle that I had to surmount — I felt it was somehow foolish, and it took me a long fourth dimension to go alee and do it. But now I do it routinely, or close to it — $eighty service for an $80 ME Super, $200 service for a $100 Spotmatic ESII, and so on. Now it seems to me but the cost of shooting with these delightful former about-antiques. I once paid $300 for a complete overhaul of a half-century quondam Rolleiflex that had price me $1,350, and the value of the photographic camera after I had information technology serviced was…$1,250. (I had overpaid in the showtime place by about $100.) Ididend up selling that camera. Only I sold information technology to a friend, and I had the satisfaction of knowing that I had brought that magnificent old automobile back into fighting trim. I ended upwards not minding.
I agree information technology'south non the most logical thing in the globe. It'due south kinda like buying a fine old suit from a thrift store for a quarter and then paying $80 to take it tailored.
The worst situation I e'er encountered forth these lines was a wonderful old 50mm Summicron I once bought. It was the 7-chemical element collapsible model dating from nearly 1954. A zealous camera collector had sent the lens to England, where all the lens elements were disassembled and individually multicoated (1954 was well before the days of multicoating). The cost to the collector was $600 for the lens in mint condition and then more than $i,000 to have it coated…and the net event of the blanket was that information technologyREDUCEDthe value of lens by $100 — because information technology was no longer "original status"! I bought the thing for $500, used it for a twelvemonth, and sold information technology to an acquaintance for $500. He's still using it.
I bought a collapsible Leica Summicron like this one that a fanatical collector had paid to have multicoated. The expensive work actually reduced the value of the lens. (Picture pinched from the web.)
And then did the collector brand a bad decision having the lens multicoated? I suppose so, from an accountant's perspective. But not from mine. It made the lens better to utilise. And after all, what'southward the point of these things, if not to take pictures with them?
And so, on the question of whether you should take your old camera CLA'd, y'all should, of course, practise what you're most comfortable with. Simply I know what I'd do.
— Mike Johnston
Plug, plug, plug: Many cheers to all those who pre-ordered my forthcoming volumeThe Empirical Photographerthis past week! A couple of small points — aye, I'll sign all the books that are pre-ordered. Also, I didn't accept overseas media mail shipment times into business relationship in the original 8-10 week time frame, and then if you ordered from overseas it may have a scrap longer to become to where you lot are. I'chiliad told that the stated time is 6 weeks for surface delivery only that virtually overseas media mail gets there much faster than that.
Also, because of the stiff response, I can continue offering the discount price for another week or so.
Many thanks for all the kind words and adept wishes that came along with the orders. I think it'south a particularly great grouping of people who have been self-selected by SMP. And don't think I don't appreciate ya!
You can order the book at my site atwww.37thframe.com. Spread the word!
Happy Sunday.
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Mike Johnstonwrites and publishes an contained quarterly ink-on-paper magazine calledThe 37th Framefor people who are really "into" photography. His book,The Empirical Photographer, has just been published.
You can read more than about Mike and findadditional articlesthat he has written for this site, equally well equally aSunday Morning time Index.
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