Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Repair Costs On The Rollies

Got my repair bills from Harry Fleenor today for my 2 Rollieflex F2.8s. There are lots of little issues and some big issues with the cameras. There is some separation on one of the taking lens (did not notice it when I had the camera). That lens separation is worrisome. I will have to work with that camera on its return to see if I notice any loss in image quality.

For camera #1 the repair costs including the adding of a Maxwell bright focusing screen is $983.65 USD.

For camera #2 the repair costs including the adding of a Maxwell bright focusing screen is $998.07 USD.

With the repairs and the original purchase/shipping/duty/tax costs, each of these cameras will cost me well in excess of $2200 CAD maybe as much as $2600 CAD a piece. That is a ton of money! I definitely overpaid in the end. I will probably sell one of the cameras to recover some of my costs. I will be using my tax refund and also my OT pay from next week to pay for all of this. Replacing my stolen bike will have to wait for now. Bad mistake on my part to buy so many Rollies. Oh well live and learn.

I need to take one of these cameras with me to Asia and make some important photos with it. If I can do that it will help offset the bad vibes of these unnecessary purchases. Good photos always leads to good feelings on my part. I forgot the costs of the equipment when I see photographs that move me.

In the end paying for the repairs is probably going to be a good thing, the right thing to do. I will be going from one garbage unusable camera with a non working shutter and one semi usable camera with a damaged meter. To two highly functional rebuilt and recalibrated high end photography machines with beautifully bright focusing screens.