23/52 TLR Surgery

This was a week of repairs.  I intended to send Lisa Greany Raiola off to Montana with my Minolta Autocord.   While demonstrating the camera to her we noticed that the light seals were bad so I promised to replace them before departure.  While giving the camera a general cleaning I exercised the focus arm and the knob snapped off….Ugh.  This is a weak point on the camera made originally from a zinc alloy.  After telling Lisa of the setback, I found Karl Bryan after a web search.  Karl is well known for Autocord repairs.  After an email exchange on Sunday the camera was sent to him on Monday.  Karl returned the Minolta to me on the following Saturday and I am amazed at the quality of his repair.  The former stiff focus is now butter smooth.  The shutter is snappy and absolutely perfect.  The ground glass was cleaned from its former swirled state to perfection.  The color images here were shot today with this camera.  Portra 400 shot at EI 200.  I absolutely love it.  But this is only part of the story.  I purchased a Rolleiflex 2.8F before Christmas.  After shooting a few rolls with it I knew something was amiss.  Focus was difficult, images were not right.  So I took this camera to MidState Camera in Warwick RI for a rehab.  It too was returned to me this week.  I was told by them that I unwittingly had purchased a very rare version of the 2.8F that is quite valuable.  The Ebay seller promised to refund me for the repairs, but given what I paid and what I ended up with I won’t ask for the modest repair cost.  Both cameras are absolute jewels.  The black and white images were shot with the Rollei one afternoon this week.  HP5+ shot at box speed.  Thanks to both of these wonderful camera doctors.  These cameras will always be with me and hopefully my daughters will some day have them to enjoy.