Stopped by a tiny repair shop in Spokane and noticed something weird

I was visiting Spokane last month and popped into this little camera shop off Division Street. The guy running it had been in business since 1987. What caught my eye was he had a whole drawer full of brass gears he’d cut himself on a lathe. In my experience, most shops just swap parts from donor bodies these days. Have you guys seen many repairers still making their own parts from scratch?

2 comments

2 Comments

vera_roberts9d ago

oh come on, that's kind of a red flag honestly. I get that it sounds charming and old school but these old timers who insist on hand cutting parts are usually just refusing to accept that the whole industry has moved on. If he's still doing that in 2024 it makes me wonder how backed up his queue is and how much he's charging for that labor. Modern repair shops can fix a shutter in 20 minutes with a donor part from a dead camera body. His way probably takes all day and costs triple. I'd rather have someone who knows how to source parts efficiently than some guy wasting time at a lathe for bragging rights.

simonreed9d ago

Yeah, a buddy of mine had a guy like that and it took him three months to get his camera back.