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Thread: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

  1. #11

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    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    Quote Originally Posted by unixrevolution View Post
    ...
    I know that a camera on a shelf not taking pictures is still a camera, but a camera that never gets used might as well not be one. A car that can't start and never moves isn't an automobile, it's car-shaped iron furniture. Cameras that can't take pictures aren't cameras because they don't do what cameras do. Cameras that don't ever take pictures will soon become cameras that can't take pictures.

    My dad and I both collect firearms. One of his guns is a never-fired, Nazi-marked Walther P38. It is a gun. It is a perfectly functional, working gun. But since its condition means I can never fire it without destroying what makes it special, it isn't a gun because I can't actually put ammunition through it. It is, functionally, not a gun.
    By your logic, the Space Shuttle that they are putting in the Smithsonian is not a Spacecraft, A locomotive at the park for kids to play on is not a train, and so forth. I also used to be a gun collector, and some are just too rare to shoot just so you can "prove" it's a gun. One of the biggest farces being pushed on the American people is what I see when an antique gun is brought to the Pawn Stars, Auction Hunters, and similar TV shows. The supposed "expert" at the pawn shop (though he always has to call in a real expert to give a real appraisal) always says, "Well, this gun will be worth a lot more if it actually works - let's go to the range!" I've seen them trying to shoot old Blunderbuss muskets, and a lot of other rare guns. Many made of 200 year old steel that should not be tested. Every gun collector knows you don't have to shoot a rare Patterson or Dragoon to "prove it works" to some imaginary yahoo that might buy it. But it most assuredly is still a gun.

    There are many beautiful or fascinating artifacts from our past that some of us like to preserve, including cameras. Let's not judge the preservationist.

  2. #12

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    Oct 2007
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    756

    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    I have always been pleased with this simple treatment of a Crown Graphic. If a Crown fulfills your needs photographically, but you would just like it to be a bit more of a cosmetic pleasure, think this rendition by Jon Grepstadt is a very clean and presentable customization of the old Crown.

    http://home.online.no/~gjon/crown99.htm

  3. #13
    Jim Jones's Avatar
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    Aug 2006
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    Chillicothe Missouri USA
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    3,065

    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    I don't do cosmetic restoration to my many cameras. Worse yet, some of my Speed Graphics have been butchered to facilitate certain uses. Pristine cameras are a treasure. Successful photography with a functional camera is even better.

  4. #14

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    Dec 2009
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    Pacifica, CA
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    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    Hi Kav,

    Looking forward to seeing your print!

    I would "restore" a camera with a CLA in a minute - if it would make it more reliable or keep it working longer.

    For a Speed Graphic, though, what attention could it need? New bellows maybe if the old one's caking flecks?

  5. #15

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    Feb 2006
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    3,142

    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    Quote Originally Posted by goamules View Post
    By your logic, the Space Shuttle that they are putting in the Smithsonian is not a Spacecraft, A locomotive at the park for kids to play on is not a train, and so forth. I also used to be a gun collector, and some are just too rare to shoot just so you can "prove" it's a gun. One of the biggest farces being pushed on the American people is what I see when an antique gun is brought to the Pawn Stars, Auction Hunters, and similar TV shows. The supposed "expert" at the pawn shop (though he always has to call in a real expert to give a real appraisal) always says, "Well, this gun will be worth a lot more if it actually works - let's go to the range!" I've seen them trying to shoot old Blunderbuss muskets, and a lot of other rare guns. Many made of 200 year old steel that should not be tested. Every gun collector knows you don't have to shoot a rare Patterson or Dragoon to "prove it works" to some imaginary yahoo that might buy it. But it most assuredly is still a gun.

    There are many beautiful or fascinating artifacts from our past that some of us like to preserve, including cameras. Let's not judge the preservationist.
    What's even worse are the shows like American gun, where the clowns who "build" the guns are incompetent - but the sheeple and droolers watching the show think they're for real. I'm just waiting to read of someone blowing themselves up doing something they saw the "gunsmiths" on tv do.

    Edit - On topic, I'm a big fan of conservation as opposed to restoration. When I did my V8, Deardorff was still in business. I telephoned Jack Deardorff to ask what the original finish would have been, and remained in contact with him until his death. At that point in time, it was just another very nice wood 8x10. It still has the original bellows, installed in 1950.
    One man's Mede is another man's Persian.

  6. #16

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    Sep 2003
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    san jose, ca
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    149

    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    Quote Originally Posted by Old-N-Feeble View Post
    Well... I'm glad I don't collect stuff. It would suck to have a half-dozen beautiful girlfriends that were too pure and too pretty to mess with.
    That situation never happens.

    Cameras are cameras if they have ever or never have taken a picture. They have history. They did a job, they did it to the best of their designed capability. That they no longer do it doesn't mean you take away the dignity of being what they are, a camera. As far as the Walther, it is still a gun. It will still do what it was designed to do. That you fire it, just takes away its perceived value, not its functionality. It IS a gun.

    As far as restoring your camera? Mom needs to get a life.

    tim in san jose

  7. #17
    unixrevolution's Avatar
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    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    Quote Originally Posted by goamules View Post
    By your logic, the Space Shuttle that they are putting in the Smithsonian is not a Spacecraft, A locomotive at the park for kids to play on is not a train, and so forth. I also used to be a gun collector, and some are just too rare to shoot just so you can "prove" it's a gun. One of the biggest farces being pushed on the American people is what I see when an antique gun is brought to the Pawn Stars, Auction Hunters, and similar TV shows. The supposed "expert" at the pawn shop (though he always has to call in a real expert to give a real appraisal) always says, "Well, this gun will be worth a lot more if it actually works - let's go to the range!" I've seen them trying to shoot old Blunderbuss muskets, and a lot of other rare guns. Many made of 200 year old steel that should not be tested. Every gun collector knows you don't have to shoot a rare Patterson or Dragoon to "prove it works" to some imaginary yahoo that might buy it. But it most assuredly is still a gun.

    There are many beautiful or fascinating artifacts from our past that some of us like to preserve, including cameras. Let's not judge the preservationist.
    I'm not saying it isn't a gun in the literal sense...I'm saying that si ce I can never use it as if it were a gun, it isn't really a gun to me. I don't consider it to be one of the firearms my dad or I own because we can never shoot it.

    Very cool piece of history? Yes. Worth preserving exactly as it is? Definitely. Something I can shoot? No.

    I approach cameras in the same way. If it's not something I can take a picture with, it may well *be* a camera, or have been a camera, but it's not a camera to me anymore. The defining experience of owning any camera is actually using it to take a photograph. If I can't get that defining experience, I don't think of it as a camera anymore.
    Please, call me Erik.
    Find me on: Flickr Pentaxforums RangeFinderForum
    Omega View 45F Monorail, Super Graphic, Various Lenses (75, 90, 135, 150/265, 210)

  8. #18

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    Dec 1997
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    Baraboo, Wisconsin
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    7,697

    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    No.
    Brian Ellis
    Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
    a mile away and you'll have their shoes.

  9. #19

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    Dec 2001
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    San Joaquin Valley, California
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    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    Your Speeder is a tool. Take care of it.
    Your mother is your mother. Obey your mother(when it comes time to "hang up" that ol' Speeder)
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  10. #20

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    May 2008
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    El Cajon, CA
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    Re: You Need To Restore Your Camera.

    Until I found a better one, my first Graflex was a sorry looking 3x4 Auto-Graflex with both the hood and bellows composed of more gaffer's tape than actual leather or whatever the original substrate was. I paid only $20 for it. The shutter was in fine condition, not too accurate, but it did work. My girl friend said she was almost embarrassed to be seen with me (she had at the time a new Nikon D200), but was rather surprised by the quality of the resulting photos. Graflex made their cameras to be used, and this one looked like it had suffered every indignity other than being driven over by a truck. I still have it, but it has been replaced by an RB in much better shape. I like my Speeds, too.
    Michael Cienfuegos

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