While stuck at home during the peak of Omicron all January 2022, I thought of sending in some vintage camera gear I had to be fixed/ cleaned.
I got in touch with the renowned Dong Camera Repair Centre in Quiapo, Manila, Philippines, and arranged to send my Nikon N80 film SLR plus its kit lens, and a Tamron 75-300mm lens to them for assessment and repair/ cleaning, if needed.
The Nikon N80 rear camera door won’t latch anymore, that one I knew for sure needed fixing. The shop fixed it the latch, and also cleaned the kit lens and mirror of some fungus.
The vintage Tamron 75-300mm was a gift, and it had a ton of fungus and the zoom mechanism was also wonky. The shop cleaned it of the fungus, even disassembling it. It works fine now on my Canon EOS M50 (with an EF- EF-M adapter), but the autofocus is still somewhat hinky.
Since my first experimental batch was a success, I decided to send in the rest of the vintage gear I had.
Dong Camera Repair Centre sent back the three Pentax point and shoots I sent them without fixing. They had assessed it and said the lenses were too hazy and damaged to be worth the time and expense fixing the lenses. These are 90s era Pentax point and shoots our family used. They aren’t particularly rare collectibles.
The rest of the cameras I sent all got back to me all with a new lease on life:
Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII rangefinder: lens was so hazy with fungus, and it’s totally clear now. The rusty silver coat was also cleaned.
Canon Epoca 135 bridge camera: lens zoom mechanism needed fixing, and it also had fungus that needed removing
Yashica Electro 35 GSN rangefinder: lens was so hazy with fungus, and it’s totally clear now. The rusty silver coat was also cleaned.
Contax 139 Quartz mechanical film SLR: lens and mirror were so hazy with fungus, it’s now 85% clean. Some black spots could not be removed. The shutter mechanism was also repaired.
Canon EOS 850 film SLR: shutter mechanism was repaired.
LINKS SUMMARY:
1) Flickr collection of all my albums of photos NOT taken with a standard digital camera
2) Nikon N80 photo album
3) Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII album: a) 2008-2009 photos
b) Taken 2011, developed only in 2019 photos
4) Yashica Electro 35 GSN album: (2007)
5) Canon EOS 850 photo album
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Nikon N80
00:28 Nikon N80 battery
00:54 receipt with prices for Nikon N80, kit lens, and Tamron 75-300mm lens cleaning/ repair
01:01 Tamron 75-300mm lens
01:15 receipt with prices for Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII, Canon Epoca 135, Yashica Electro 35 GSN, Contax 139 Quartz (plus Yashica 50mm lens), Canon EOS 850 repair/ cleaning
01:30 Pentax ESPIO 738
02:05 Pentax Zoom 280P
02:18 Pentax ESPIO AF Zoom
02:30 unpacking batteries
02:39 unpacking Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII, Canon Epoca 135, Yashica Electro 35 GSN, Contax 139 Quartz, and Canon EOS 850
02:55 Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII
03:23 Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII battery
03:38 Canon Epoca 135
03:54 Canon Epoca 135 battery
04:06 testing the Canon Epoca 135 lens retraction
04:33 Canon Epoca 135 film compartment/ slot
04:55 Yashica Electro 35 GSN
05:28 Yashica Electro 35 GSN battery
06:11 Contax 139 Quartz
06:38 Contax 139 Quartz’s lens
06:56 Contax 139 Quartz battery
07:08 Canon EOS 850
07:37 mounting a lens on the Canon EOS 850 (I used the Tamron 75-300mm I showed in 01:01)
07:56 2009 stills from the Nikon N80
08:00 2008-2011 stills from the Minolta Hi-Matic 7sII
08:05 2009 stills from the Canon EOS 850
08:09 2007 stills from the Yashica Electro 35 GSN
Music: Rise Dripping
from https://www.streambeats.com/
