Came across this on their website yesterday: "CURRENTLY ONLY SERVICING COPAL SHUTTERS
We are currently only accepting Copal shutters for repair. We are no longer servicing older vintage makes and models (Ilex, Compur, Prontor, Betax, Alphax, etc)"
I corrected some typos in this cut and paste.
One less place to send our irreplaceable No. 5 Ilexes and esteemed dial set Compurs... and so forth.
David
Specialization can be a good thing. Use S.K. Grimes for custom machining and Carol Miller (Flutot's) for shutter repair.
Most likely it is a parts problem. And it is only a matter of time before Copal parts are also scarce.Originally Posted by David Lindquist
Frank Marshman has a good supply of NOS parts for Ilex shutters and was still taking in work as of the middle of last year.
Carol isn't too backlogged right now - just sent something off last week. Bit of a pain though that Grimes is no longer taking non-Copal shutters.
There are other craftsman repair shops that can do shutter repairs. It is not exclusive to just two places.
Camera Doctor in NYC
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Sorry Bob, Carol is that good that I ship shutters across the pond for repair.
Pete.
There are lots of very good repair technicians for shutters. However, like Grimes, they may not all want to do antique shutters. I'm sure that some of those technicians are also on your side of the pond as well.
A very good friend of mine was Martin Arndt, who was the owner of Marflex Service over here. Before that he was the National Service Manager for Rollei of America. He apprenticed as a technician at Rollei, Franke and Heidekie in Braunschweig in Germany.
As part of his apprenticeship he was given a block of glass and had to make it into a lens that could be mounted into a Rollei TLR and that the factory could sell as a finished product.
He was not the only apprentice that had to pass this test. All of the ones in his area of training had to Aldo do that.
He trained countless numbers of technicians to service Rollei products as well as Linhof products over the decades. Many of these technicians are still repairing cameras and shutters. So are trained technicians from other camera companies and from camera repair training centers.
Camera repair 101 is repairing shutters. It is not rocket science for these people. Whether it is Nippon Photo in NYC, Krimar in NJ, Pro in Washington DC, Precision in Niles, IL, Precision in Austin, TX, Tempe in AZ, pro in Charlottesville, VA, etc. there are lots of them. And all can repair a shutter.
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