A Camera Repair Story...All Cameras have their Flaws...

[Alex]

Even though the new mini-dv cameras offer a lot for the money, they inevitably fall short one way or another.

I had a very small two camera video shoot over the past weekend (nothing that relates to this forum), since my one camera was in Chicago, a friend of mine showed up with his 3-chip Panasonic camera.

I was pleased with the result. The funny part was I insisted he put his camera on my Sachtler Video XVIII tripod, which cost more than the camera!

But the footage looked good. I don't know how it performs indoors, but we may find out this weekend if my camera is not back.

[Alex]

In fact, Super-8 cameras are the cheapest to fix of all cameras on the market!

Sometimes we grumble because it could cost $100-$300 to fix a Super-8 Camera...check this out.

I did a combination Video/Super-8 film shoot in December that seemed to reveal a problem with my 3-Chip Video camera.

I brought the camera in for repair, and I spent somewhere between $1,600-$2,000 to have 5 circuit boards replaced.

The camera was 5 years old, and still makes real pretty pictures, so it was a no-brainer to have the camera repaired versus what, just throw it out????

That was in January...I'M STILL DEALING WITH GETTING THE CAMERA RIGHT!!!

Three trips back, three attempts to make the camera right. The camera gave itself away when in wide angle mode. The picture was soft.

The service facility claimed it was my lens. But the lens was an aftermarket $3,000.00 dollar lens that had been checked out by the Fujinon repair facility just a month or two before my camera was sent in for repair.

While I was at the Fujinon repair facility, the lenses from Survivor Africa arrived in big metal cases. Well, I was impressed!

The guy checking out my lens was the same guy/facility that handles the Survivor TV series lenses!

I was pretty certain the lens was fine. [img]wink.gif[/img]

I had been fortunate enough to get a second lens EXACTLY the same make and model as the first lens (on e-bay, of course)

So I did some tests, I simply replaced the lens on the camera with the back-up lens. I discovered that the picture remained soft.

NO WAY both lenses were soft.

In desperation, I called the super-tech genius guy for the video camera company, he was based in the midwest. I sent the camera....CAREFULLY DISASSEMBLED & PACKAGED there.

Apparently, there were secondary circuit boards that also needed to be readjusted, that had gone unadjusted the first three go arounds.

I don't have the camera back yet. But the cost in time, distance traveled each time to have the camera fixed (over 850 total miles !)...and the redo's I have had to endure. Plus my own time spent making tests to try and discern the trouble, are easily over another $1,000 in lost income, perhaps as high as $1,500-$2,000.

The lesson here is for the Super-8 crowd is simple...

It's always more important that you're Super-8 camera be fixed right, the first time, then grumbling over an extra $50.00 or $100.00 in repair costs.

It's crucial you have at least one back-up Super-8 Camera, and even a third camera that can be used as spare parts to fix the other two same model Super-8 cameras.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 28, 2002 12:38 AM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>

[Mike Buckles]

Alex, you're right...video equipment and cameras are horribly expensive to fix, and there is a lot that can go wrong with them...I live in fear that my 3 chip camera may someday break....and we pay far too much money for them to just "chuck 'em out!"...hope that adjusting the secondary boards means your ordeal is over with! Mike