Mooching Along Through The Shop...

On a recent visit to the new CE Murray Street shop I came past this cabinet.

It is not overstated, nor over-full. Well, not as yet. It's still early days at the new shop and there will be more materièl added as time goes on. Our regular customers at the Stirling Street shop may crack a wry smile at this. Camera Electronic does have a habit of adding extra stuff from time to time...Ahem...

Okay, the cabinet has a " Pre-Owned " sign on the top. Those are pre-owned cameras and lense on the shelves. That's the bare bones of it. Here's the back story...

Camera Electronic has always maintained a Secondhand dealer's license. It has always had the legal ability to trade goods in or buy them outright and then to resell them. It also has the ability to thoroughly check the goods that come into the pre-owned section and to warrant their proper operation. This is due to the astute judgment of our technicians.

Our chief man, Ernest, uses nearly all of his senses when it comes to assessing equipment offered for trade.

a. He feels the camera. Is the surface rough, is a covering loose, do the controls feel gritty? Is there too much play in a lens mount? Does something not turn? All these signs mean that he will recommend that it not be traded in.

b. He listens to the camera. Do  the gears grate, does the motor whine too much, is there a crackle in the operation of the buttons or the levers? Again, this is a no...

c. He smells the camera. Mould and fungus have a peculiar odour. One he does not want us have to deal with. It can be dealt with, but not easily nor cheaply. Again no.

d. He looks at the camera. If it looks fine, that is fine. If it looks bad, that is not. Are there tell-tale signs of previous repair? Hmmm...

e. At this stage of the game I can state that I have never seen him lick a camera or lens to test the flavour. It is not impossible, but I have no idea that test result this would yield. About the only thing I can think of is the idea that a Zorki or Fed would probably taste like fish oil...Let's leave that one alone...

All the above is to indicate that the items that make it to the Pre-owned cabinet s at Stirling Street or Murray Street do so on merit. They have passed a set of very tough tests and are worthy of consideration. The fact that they are often at a considerable reduction in price compared to the new boxed item is of real benefit - you can have double the amount of equipment and double the amount of capability for the same price.

Do I practice what I preach? I do - I have bought secondhand lenses and camera bodies from Camera Electronic for decades and I have not been disappointed once. All the way from the wooden 4x5 Nagaoka that Ron sold me in 1995 to the latest 35mm f:1.4 Fujinon lens that sits on my Fujifilm X-Pro1 right now, the goods have been good and I have had fabulous value for money.

Go-on - mooch past that cabinet every time you are in there - and look in every time you do. The stock changes all the time and you never can tell when the ideal bit that you never dreamed you could afford will be sitting there waiting for you. One thing you can be sure of - it has the Ernest seal of approval.

Does that 35mm f:1.4 Fujinon do the business? It sure does when La Belle Jane is the model...

The Midnight Laboratory Of Dr. Ernest...

Approach the the old castle, open the creaking door, and avoid the large Tesla coil machine making lightning in the corner. Welcome to the laboratory of Dr. Ernest. It is as near to Transylvania as most of us ever get...

Disregard the shrieking. It is just the staff looking at the latest work roster. Pay them no mind. Look on the bench...

Notice the Canon camera sitting with the lens off, and strange wires leading from the inside...leading to the dismantled Voigtlander lens nose-down on the workbench. Now listen and watch as Dr. Ernest triggers the continuous exposure drive of the camera and captures the result in slow motion...

Notice how the actuator lever in the lens bounces back and forth as the diaphragm of the lens is stopped down - and how it comes to the end of its travel and meets as simple a device as a brass wire to arrest it...

See the shutter open in perfect synchronisation with the diaphragm, even though the camera is banging away like a maxim gun. And look into the mysterious depths of the camera at the living, breathing sensor...sensing things...

Notice how every paragraph ends with three dots...

Behold! Dr. Ernest breathes life into the separate parts! Behold! He knows how to make them operate in unison! Behold! He knows how to put them back together again and not end up with extra screws and springs! The science of the Repair Department! Life!

And one last thing...