I have no experience with either of those shops, but I'll offer some general comment on video gear service. Over the years, I had nothing but problems with local, independent shops that were listed as service facilities for my geographic area by the manufacturer. I resolved to only send repair work out to factory facilities operated by the manufacturer, (including Sony, JVC, Panasonic and Canon) and they always fixed the stuff right, and in a reasonable time frame. Typically, they charge a flat fee, regardless of what's wrong. Sometimes that turned out to be a bargain vs. a charge based on actual parts and labor time, sometimes not.
On the other hand, independent shops with a national customer base that specialize in the type of gear you have are a different story. I only dealt with one of those, for repair of a Japanese Sony DV-SVHS deck that US Sony wouldn't take as it wasn't US product. They were good. Now, most of these repairs, and all the ones that turned into trouble with local shops, were for electronics issues. If your camera still works, it sounds like you only need the LCD screen mount on the case fixed. Anyone with access to the parts, and a guide on how to disassemble the camera should be able to do that. > -- they quoted $150 repair without seeing the camera. That sounds reasonable for the problem you described. They'd know what part likely broke, what it costs, and how much time it takes to switch it out. For $150, there're assuming you won't need a new screen. Most Canons are fragile, including the GL2, and they've probably fixed a lot cock-eyed LVCD screens from tripod tip-overs and the like. Unless the quote was 'minimum $150 just to look, and could go higher depending...' As for Jeff's idea of replacing rather than repairing, GL2s are old enough now that anything you'd get on eBay would be a bit of a pig-in-a-poke, and if yours has been light used, babied and is a known quantity, you probably want to stay with it as long as the repair cost isn't too high. If you can get it fixed for $150, that's less of a gamble. If it was me, given that it sounds like we're talking about a broken plastic part, I'd probably try to figure out if I could fix it myself using Sugru/epoxy or something. But I'm 'handy', and a little crazy... _______________________________________________ FrameWorks mailing list [email protected] https://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks
