"Young" camera repair people

Does anyone know ( or want to speculate) the numbers of younger

people who might be getting into the repair and maintenance of older

cameras? What are the opportunities for those so inclined to learn

the trade? With the multitudes of older Nikons, Canons, Rolleis,

Hasselblads, Leicas, etc. out there and the number of people still

interested in them, it seems like this would be a good ( and decent-

paying) opportunity. Any repair trade people out there who would like

to comment?

I am relatively "young" in my early 30's and I would say not many. The problem is that cameras have become much like computers, either throwaway or simply replacing components that fail rather than to try what I consider a repair. There are a lot of older cameras out there but with the internet available as an excellent "word of mouth" and marketing tool, I think the best approach is to focus on a few specific cameras and become a true expert. For the camera repairs I have others do, I chose experts that really know the cameras over some general hack.

 

There's no way I would consider it as a career, but I'm slowly becoming more confident in camera repair. It inspires confidence to know I can fix something myself even if I'm the last person on earth that's capable! Its also fun (and economic) to buy project cameras and bring them back to life. Maybe it'll give me something to do in retirement?

Well, my plan to win the lottery, retire and then move from cog in the corporate wheel to leisurely camera repair doesn't seem to be working.

 

So these days, I've decided to focus on a handful of cameras, which Mike says. You need to do a lot of work on simpler cameras before moving on to more complex cameras.

 

You'll get a high degree of satisfaction from restoring an older camera, turning it into something usable.

 

Modern day cameras are increasingly becoming more like computers, and you'll probably need specialized equipment for you to "plug in" and decipher its problems. As well, you'll need to decipher error codes, and there is no guarantee that "Error 99" will mean the same thing with the next generation of cameras.

 

Now, heading back to the older cameras, in most cases you'll need specialized tools. If you're really interested in this as a career, you probably can approach a couple of the remaining camera repair places, such as KEH, Essex Camera, Midwest and a couple of other places, and try to get a job with them.

I don't think there's a whole lot of money to be made specializing in the repair of older cameras whose replacement value would cover a decent hourly rate on a repair job, and increasingly the tools, skills and technology required to repair older cameras is different from that needed for new ones.... and even to the extent that fewer and fewer new ones are even intended to be repairable.

 

I am not a "repair trade person"; I have specialized (if the term applies) in repairing older cameras that the people who have to feed their families from the proceeds can't afford to work on. With the exception of a few very expensive brands (Leica and Hasselblad come to mind), I think the repair of older cameras, whether done by professionals, semi-pros or amateurs, will be more a labor of love than a career from here on out. The good news is that I think there will be enough love out there to support it for a while yet.

 

rick :)=

In the late 1970's, I actually went to school to learn camera repair. At the time, if I recall, the school I went to, National Camera Repair School in Colorado, was the only such school in the country. I am told it is now closed.

 

I never repaired the first camera after I graduated. Generally, new graduates went to work for someone like Pentax, in their warranty department. One had to develop their skills to be able to make any money repairing cameras. As the adage goes, time is money and you ain't gonna make any money if it takes you 3 days to do a repair for which you charge $125.

Yep,there's little or no money in it and it will definitely get worse.

<P>Anyone considering it would be advised to specialise in the still popular models such as nikon FM2's, canon T90's,etc

<br>Most everything else will be thrown away once the owner finds how much it costs to fix

 

<P>Besides all that,someone will probably train tech's in asia to do it and offer mail order servicing

<BR>In fact i'd be surprised if some companies aren't starting to send some of their repairs OS allready

Um, the late Steve Grimes' successors, who are still doing business as SKGrimes, are quite young. But then, they're narrow specialists who repair mainly large format equipment and fabricate gadgets for it. Not quite what you're thinking of, I fear.