Heard a repair shop owner say something that stuck with me

I was at a camera swap meet last Saturday in Portland and overheard this older guy who runs a repair shop say he never touches autofocus modules on vintage film cameras anymore. He said he's ruined 3 of them trying to clean the tiny mirrors inside and now just tells customers it's a gamble. That made me think about knowing your limits in this trade. Has anyone else run into a job where you just decided it's not worth the risk?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_lee2d ago

That old timer is smart. I know a guy in Seattle who tried cleaning the mirror box on a Minolta X-700 and knocked the whole focusing screen out of alignment. Took him two weeks to get it back right. Some of those old autofocus modules are like watch parts in there, one wrong move and you're done. Better to just be straight with people upfront like that shop owner.

briannguyen1d ago

Ngl "took him two weeks" means he learned something, not that he should quit trying.