Lens cleaning in Vancouver, BC?

Can anyone recommend a tech for lens cleaning in Vancouver? I know of

Kindermann but would like to do it locally. Brighouse (now Vancam)

polished the lens mount of my SLR and supposedly calibrated the meter

but made little difference, if any, except to my wallet.

I've heard word of a fine man named Horst. I don't have any contact details to offer, but I'm sure if you ask around town you'll find his number. He apparently specializes in Hasselblad and Lecia.

Horst: (604) 263-5820

 

He's done great work for me. Cleaned up a Serenar 50/1.8 that was opaque and is now 99% crystal clear.

Same here, great man, great bsmt workshop with all the cool machines you'd expect.

Isn't there an Iranian cab driver/fish dealer/Leica tech in Vancouver?

Alex-- Isn't Horse the guy in Vancouver that could never fix Frank's

Leica CL? Frank always complained about the "dork bars" on his pictures. They were really dark bands, indicating a shutter problem.

gary cullen does excellent lens work. sorry i don't have contact info. at the moment.

I think Horst used to own Van-Cam. I asked him to check the focus on my Bessa R and 75/2.5. When I stopped by to drop off my camera, he checked it immediately for no charge at all. He even showed me how the collimator worked and let me see for myself that the focus was working.

 

larsbc

Thank you all who took the time to respond. Keep 'em coming!

 

Jerry - I'm familiar with Frank's past and present posts but haven't dealt with Horst. FWIW, we have no way of telling whether Frank's CL story (or anything else he writes, for that matter) is true, short of talking to Horst himself.

 

Tom - there is a photo.net member with the same name but his only two messages were posted in 1998. Is he the guy?

In Vancouver Horst Wenzel comes highly recommended. (Contact info above.)

 

I like Kindermann (Gerry is just great) but shipping across the country takes time. IMHO, it is worth it.

 

I had a Summicron 40 repaired by Camtex (http://camtexgroup.com/home.html).

 

Not much help to a Leica user but for completness I leave this thought with you. There are a few ex-Pentax camera tech's in Vancouver, since Pentax closed its Vancouver shop. Alan Tai comes to mind but there are others.

 

Finally, re Vancam, in May of 1998, I received the worst customer service every at Vancam. I was in the store because they had a Rollei 35 for sale. On the phone I was told to come in a take a look. The two men behind the counter could not agree on a price for me, and pushed it into the stratosphere. I was not longer interested in the Rollei.

 

I enquired after an incident lightmeter in the display case. Was it for sale? "Yes", one of them replied. "Can I see it and how much is it?" "I don't know," the man replied. I asked few more questions. He never declared a price. He ended our exchange with, "well are you going to buy it? Otherwise, get out. I have cameras to repair." I pointed out that he had told me it was for sale but had not told me the price, making a decision difficult. I then told him I would have been interested in the lightmeter, but "get out" kind of killed the shopping experience.

 

I have made scores of recomendations about camera repairs in Vancouver, and never recomended Vancam, or warned it can come with surely and indiferent service. It is possible they could of improved by now.

I have to echo that Horst is the man to go to. He is skilled and reasonable. I have not been

happy with Vancam, but have had good experience with Camtex on Burrard.

 

Phone Horst.

 

D.

Vancam is schittie. The work they did on my Rollei lasted just long enough to get past warranty, before it got sent to California to get the job done right!

Thanks again guys. I will contact Horst and Camtex (or any other tech you recommend) for an estimate.

 

Miles, I have dealt with people like that and know the feeling. Although the guy at Brighouse was friendly enough but he (or whoever the tech was) didn't seem to have done anything for my SLR, despite the steepsih CAD 90 they charged me for the mount polishing and meter calibration.

I had a T-90 camera sent to Van Cam and they destroyed my camera. It came back in worse condition then what I gave it to them, and made the camera utterly useless. The shutter had that error problem they have, and even with a new shutter- it still came up. It was initially sent to Brighouse of which it never got fixed 100% right. Regardless I lost the value of the camera and ended up selling it for parts never recouping the money put into it.