I watched a shop in Portland rebuild a Pentax 6x7 mirror box in under an hour and it completely changed how I work on these things.

Before I saw them do it I was taking like 3 hours on each one and still ending up with mirror alignment issues, but after watching their jig setup and the order they tightened those screws I cut my own time down to 45 minutes flat last week... has anyone else found a local shop that actually shows you their shortcuts or do they all guard that stuff like trade secrets?

2 comments

2 Comments

cameronf885d ago

That shop in Portland sounds cool but honestly I think keeping trade secrets is totally reasonable. I've spent years and hundreds of dollars figuring out my own repair methods for Pentax 6x7 gear and if someone else wants to skip all that trial and error they should pay for the knowledge or build their own jig. There's no free lunch in this hobby. Shops that give away their shortcuts are hurting themselves in the long run because then everyone expects it and their time gets devalued. Plus if you share everything you know other repair guys just copy your work without giving credit or paying you back. The whole "community sharing" thing sounds nice but in reality most people just take take take and never give anything useful back.

grantmartinez5d ago

Wow, nobody's talking about how keeping those secrets actually makes the repair work less reliable over time. If one shop guy retires or passes away, all that knowledge about fixing Pentax 6x7 stuff just disappears and then nobody can fix their cameras at all. Tbh, a little sharing helps keep the whole ecosystem alive so we're not all stuck with paperweights in ten years.