Alongside my watch-servicing hobby, I also repair and restore vintage film cameras. My wife is a professional photographer and prefers shooting film on these older cameras, not only for the character of their lenses, but for the experience of using them. The tactile feedback of releasing the shutter, advancing the film, and manually setting aperture and shutter speed creates a more engaging process and makes the resulting images feel more intentional and authentic.

To support her work, I applied the skills I developed through watch servicing to the closely related world of camera mechanisms. I source most of my cameras through our many secondhand shop visits or from eBay, restoring them to working condition through careful disassembly, cleaning, and adjustment. Below is one of my more ambitious restoration projects: a classic photojournalism-style Speed Graphic camera from the early 1900s.

The image on the right shows the shutter and aperture mechanism of the Speed Graphic lens, which required a level of cleaning and lubrication similar to that of a mechanical wristwatch movement. Each gear, spring, screw, and bridge had to be carefully disassembled, cleaned, reassembled, and lubricated.

To verify performance, I designed a small test rig using an LED light source and an optical sensor to measure shutter timing before and after servicing. The results showed a dramatic reduction in timing error, bringing the shutter speeds to within 10% of their nominal values. Given the age of the mechanism, this exceeded my expectations. In addition to restoring the shutter assembly, I also repaired numerous pinholes in the accordion-style bellows, significantly reducing light leaks and image hazing in the final photographs.

Another rewarding restoration project involved a Yashica Mat-124. These consumer-grade twin-lens reflex cameras were extremely popular in their time, and this example presented a unique challenge due to the compact and highly interdependent nature of its internal mechanisms.

The primary fault lay in the film advance system. Once a roll was loaded, the camera could not wind the film onto the take-up spool, making it impossible to capture more than a single frame per roll of 120 film. The root cause was a broken spring on a small lever within the frame-count detection subsystem, which determines when the maximum number of exposures has been reached. To repair it, I sourced a second camera body for parts and salvaged the required spring. I then performed a complete disassembly, cleaning, reassembly, and lubrication of the film transport mechanism. After restoration, the film advance and frame-counting system operated correctly, returning the camera to full working order.

Whether I am building something new or restoring something old, one of my greatest joys is sharing those experiences with my family. I hope to instill in my son the value of caring for the things you own, the idea that fixing something is a reward in itself, and the understanding that trying, failing, and trying again is one of the most fulfilling parts of life.