## 17 Repair

A few weeks ago, I have brought my two film camera to repair. One is from 1985 and the other is from 1993. The first one seemed to empty the battery and had also speed issues. And of course, the foam was destroyed. For the second one, it was an old issue with a battery that had leaked and some other electronic malfunction. I knew that it could be expensive...but not that expensive. Of course, if you count 4 hours of work for each and the parts, you can find it expensive. But if you compare to new camera with similar quality, it's not always expensive.

The problem is that for those Japanese cameras, you can find a verified camera for less than 60% or the repair cost. I made the choice to repair the older one, with very few electronic parts and a very good optical quality. It's more what I wanted to make street photography with its 50mm 1.7 lens. For the second one, I'm going to sell the three lenses alone and the camera for parts. In the same time, I'm going to buy an old Konica Rangefinder which is lighter and smaller to have it like a ...picture pen, as Olympus said for its iconic Pen camera. With two film cameras, including a SLR, it's OK for me to go "back in the business". We can find new brands for film and I know some labs in Paris. 

I also have a digital traval camera and a pro-bridge camera. I will also sell my good old "Concert Camera" because I do less concert and it's a very old fashionned digital camera with too few pixels. But it was a fantastic camera for that, a good lens and a very powerful software for that kind of scene, if you knew how to use it. Yes, Kodak did good things but didn't know how to sell it. I bought it at a very cheap price one or two year before they close the doors.

But as I see now the price to repair those good old cameras, I understand why many passionate photographers are looking for the mechanic camera, not the camera with a lot of electronics. I still have a Vitoret to repair but I thing it will be tough. For more modern camera with plastic and much more electronics, it's very difficult. But now, it's difficult to find a good SLR under 1000€. There are no more compact camera, except "expert" compact camera. No more point and shoot cameras, everyone has a smartphone. I have compared the differences between a 15 years old point and shoot and a modern smartphone : Smartphone is now better for difficult scenes with poor or complex lights, even if the lens is a shit. Software is doing better. But for film camera, it's something different, a kind of magic. You are more concentrated on the subject, more concerned by the technical elements. It's very interesting to go back to film.

So, even if it's not economically viable, I will repair the other camera in France, because even in Paris, there are less than 5 workshops like this to repair film cameras, and only 2 other companies to make your film live with pictures...I could have named this post Film...but it's quite the same to repair other goods like fridge, tv, radio, etc...And I if I'm typing this on a computer, it's also a refurbished computer, a good old Lenovo, as usual. The other one is not dead and is working for other tasks. This one is like a modern typing machine, my companion for writing and escaping this damned world. If there's something we need to repair, it's our planet and the world we build. Not an easy tasK. But for the moment, I'm happy to see the world through film pictures. I'm ready to go back in the streets and in the countryside. Photography has became an expensive hobby, as it was in the past, I think. Or just because I don't want to buy an expensive smartphone able to take good pictures. I prefer, of course, 
an "Easy to repair" smartphone ! 

2Dɛ
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