On Jul 13, 2005, at 7:04 AM, Tom Reese wrote:
Suppose you walked into a store that sold used cameras and found a
recent one (electronics etc) that interested you. What steps would
you follow to make sure the camera was trouble free?
- make sure the battery compartment isn't corroded
- look for excessive amounts of dust and crud in the mirror box and
film areas
- make sure the shutter works at all marked speeds
(if it has an electronic shutter and a dead battery, buy a
battery to test it with)
- make sure the lens stops down as it ought, and opens too
- make sure the film transport works
- make sure the pressure plate is clean, flat, and without burrs or
nicks
- make sure the rewind works (with a real roll of film...)
- if possible, test the meter
(clear blue sky, mid-morning to mid-afternoon, should give you a
Sunny 16
exposure setting, plus or minus half a stop)
then
- if there is no return possible, make sure it's cheap enough to be a
minimal loss
- once home with it, and assuming a return policy, run a roll of film
through it
exercising all the controls and features. After processing,
examine the film
and determine whether the camera is worth keeping.
Many times I've bought a camera from a pawn shop or at a flea market,
both mechanical and electronic shutters. In both types, I've found
things wrong afterwards ... broken switches and some features not
working. But, by and large, I've found more electronic shutters
working fine, making for a usable camera, and more mechanical
shutters slow or otherwise damaged through dust and dirt. If the
broken bits are irrelevant to my interest (rarely use a self timer,
for instance) and the camera is cheap enough, no problem.
Battery corrosion in the body is the most telling indicator that the
electronic camera is going to have problems, where excessive dust and
crud in the mirror box and film transport areas are the telling
indicators of problems to come with mechanical cameras.
Godfrey
