Repairable still

When do you stop paying for repairs?

Our photographer recently had his Rolleiflex TLR camera repaired.  Something had gone wrong with a mechanical linkage inside, and it really wasn’t usable.  The cost was bearable, though substantial, and he’s already run a test roll through it (he says more tests are necessary, though we think he just wants time off to shoot in the bright fall sunlight).  Over the years he’s had to fund repairs several times, partly because he’s had the camera for a long time, and partly because (he admits sheepishly) sometimes he’s not as careful with it as he should be.

For most things, there comes a time at which paying for more repairs becomes more costly that buying a new item.  Cars wear out (though not as quickly as they used to), appliances also.  Parts are harder to get, as the new model becomes old and technology, or fashion, marches on.  Factoring in the convenience of having something that doesn’t break down as often, at some point paying a little more for a new item rather than a little less to fix the old one, becomes attractive.

For older items, like film cameras, there also comes a time when not only parts but repairmen are difficult to come by.  Learning how to fix a popular camera when it’s relatively new and many people are using it makes sense; learning how to fix something that survives only in limited numbers (and in more limited use) is harder to justify.  And there will come a time when all those who fit in the first category have retired.

We’re almost there with some examples of a much newer technology.  One of our consultants had his first electronic calculator repaired about a year ago.  It’s a still remarkably capable model, able to do just about anything an undergraduate science student would want (apart from graphing).  And there are even some things it handles more easily than later models.  But technology has moved on, and he could only find one company (in fact one man) who could and would perform the repair.  That technician is retiring soon.

With this in mind, when a certain photographic project required a pre-WWII lens, and thus an already old camera, our photographer finally settled on a Leica III.  Not only are Leicas famously well-made, they have a following that is more dedicated than just excellence in manufacture would quite justify.  That means, he explains, there will always be someone around willing to fix a Leica.

It’s inevitable that the day will come when the Rolleiflex and even the Leica will have to be consigned to the shelf as un-fixable.  But our photographer hopes that day is still far away.