How not to care for and repair cameras

[Dug]

I work a couple of days a week in a camera shop to feed my camera addiction habit. Today a Pentax SLR owner came in, his young son had pulled the camera off a chair onto the floor, "Can it be repaired?" he asked hopefully with the camera still in the bag.

Opening the bag the camera at first glance did not look in too bad a condition, " OK, we will have a look at it" I said. "It should not need too much work the lens ring on the camera was bent out but we managed to knock it most of the way back in with a hammer" He replied hopefully. This did not fill me with confidence, I took the lens off only to find several squashed springs and bent screws one of which fell out on the desk.

I suggested it may not be worth repairing as the cost of cameras continues to drop and the price of repairs goes up. "No No I want to get a quote it has a really good lens on it" I looked at the rather sad 35 to 70 zoom and said "OK, we will check it out on one of our cameras" not surprisingly the auto focus did not work, so I tried the manual focus ring and was appalled at the crunchy sound and feel it gave to any movement. "No I'm sorry but it look like the lens was damaged in the fall too. Here feel the crunchy grinding feel in the manual focus" ever hopeful came the reply "Oh no thats not from the fall, that is probably just the sand from when we took it down to the beach and it got accidently buried!"

I did not even have to reply, my look I think betrayed my feelings, he picked up the camera and said "thank you, I guess it's not worth repairing" and left the shop. I am still shaking my head in disbelief I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

cheers doug

[Zeeke]

remind me not to show you my camera next time we go fishing Doug

good story tho..

Tim

[Volvo]

While you at it Doug, how about n opinion of the Nikon D70 SLR Digital ..
Thanks in advance ey ..
Cheers

[Dug]

The Nikon D 70 is devil spawn it is without doubt one of the most evil and demonic cameras ever produced all who use it should be burned at the stake!

After 5 years of delay and much loathing of digital ( I am a film purist) I have bought a D70 I will be buying another one soon so I can get mine back from my wife Margo. I bought mine on June 1st this year and have shot over 7,000 frames so far. It does most things I want a digital to do and it is for the most part FAST!!! I will not be selling my F5 any time yet but I am considering selling my F100 and buying another D70. There I said it, I feel so dirty. PM me if you are thinking of getting one I can give you a more detailed run down and quote a price? but on the whole it does a good job. The 18 to 70 dx lens is very nice too!