How to repair old Nikon - a record of my attempt

[Shinpachi]

Thank you very much for the compliment, David !
My main group of camera is now Nikon and Fuji of Nikon mount. Sony follows with old Minolta Alpha lenses.
I think the picture quality of Sony is the best in my limited experiences but batteries are powerless without exception. This is fatal and I hesitate to use Sony as my main.
Nikon is very reliable with powerful batteries, sturdy body and unchanged lens mount standards for more than 50 years.

If you should visit my country in the future, I recommend you to stay in the same place as long as possible like a month.
You will understand our basic life style very well

 

[Airframes]

Thanks my friend - I'll try to help where possible, but I'll admit, I'm still getting used to digital cameras.
I was trained in Professional, Audio-Visual and Graphics photography by Kodak, where I was at first a technical adviser, and then moved into the Graphics market division (printing industry) as a Technical Specialist Representative, so I spent many years using everything from 127 and 120 roll film, 35 mm and plate films, up to 50 x 60 cm and larger sheet films, on large process cameras.
The basics, of course, haven't changed, but I'm still learning some of the technical aspects of digital photography !

 

[Shinpachi]

You are a very expert of photography more than I expected, Terry
I didn't tell anybody yet but I'm thinking to rebuild some of my old film cameras into the digital ones combined with current Sony Nex3 or 5.
I frankly wanted so-called "digital film" and have ever researched it in the internet before but it didn't look popular and was not available after all.
Didn't Kodak try any ???
Thanks

 

[Marcel]

35 dollars for a d80 is a bargain even if the flash doesn't work. That's a chance you don't get every day. Well done Shinpachi.

 

[Airframes]

Yes, Kodak were way ahead in digital imaging, and the first true digital camera was 'invented', and designed, by a Kodak employee - in the early 1970s !!
A digital system for amateur and professional use was ready by the early 1980s, but 'the market' wasn't ready for the change at that time, just as it wasn't ready for the tiny video 'camcorder' which Kodak had developed, the size of a cigarette packet, in the very early 1980s
Instead, Kodak developed the 'T' grain photo emulsion, which gave very high resolution results, with faster ASA/ISO/DIN speeds, although in the Graphics market, mainly in Europe, some digital systems started to appear.
In the USA, it was much slower in this market, with even traditional methods being around 15 years behind Europe and Japan at that time.
I personally believe that this factor was one of the reasons that Kodak 'missed the boat' world wide, as Eastman Kodak called for redundancies across all the countries (except the USA), and I feel there was a fairly high degree of mis-management at that time.
In my division, around 12 or 14 of us were made redundant, losing a vast array of skills and experience, which ultimately led to Kodak Ltd losing the Graphics market share, and being bought by another company !
And now, as a company, they're literally a shadow of what they once were.

 

[Gnomey]

Good stuff shinpachi! $35 is a bargain for a D80.

 

[Shinpachi]

Thanks for your kind comments Marcel, Terry and Hugh !
The name of Kodak will be immortal and I believe you can eat on the name enough like Leica does.
As you may know, our Minolta was producing Leica R-series SLR in Osaka 30 years ago. Now it's Panasonic.

The flash of my D80 works normally.
I find no problem at the moment Thanks !

 

[vikingBerserker]

Nice!

 

[Airframes]

Good to know the D80 works as it should, and I agree, you got it for a really good price, even allowing for the fact that it needed some work doing to it.
Average price for a D80 on the second-hand market in the UK, is around £100 to £200 ($150 to $300 US Dollars), in good to mint condition, and around £65 to £85 for a well-used example.

 

[Shinpachi]

Thanks for your kind comments David and Terry.
To tell you the truth, I also came across a Nikon D1X for the same price in the same shop on the previous day last week.
Because it had no battery, I returned home once without buying it to check if the battery is still available for reasonable price.
I found out more than a dozen of brand new discounted EN-4 batteries in another shop, so I decided to buy the D1X on the next day.
But, it had been sold out and I purchased the D80.
God knows who was lucky after all

 

[GrauGeist]

Wonderful job on the repair, Shinpachi-san!

But, where is the love for the Pentax? My K100D was destroyed in the wreck, where it was violently slammed against the dashboard during the collision. I sent it back to Pentax and they were able to rebuild it for me and it serves me well alongside my newer K-5 to this day!

 

[Shinpachi]

Thanks for your kind post, Dave, and Sorry I didn't comment about Pentax more as I couldn't talk about it without tears

Pentax was compact, handy and very familiar SLR cameras for me until 22 years ago when I divorced my wife.
I took tons of beautiful pictures of my lovely kids with Pentax and I decided to leave it to them as a keepsake from their father when divorced.
I gave a ME to my son at the time and a SV to my daughter last year when she married.
The SV is now loved by her husband too and he took several shots to send me recently.
Attached are his pictures. Not bad skills I now believe my love for Pentax has been certainly inherited by them.
I am very happy about this point

 

[Old Wizard]

I've been a Pentax fan for years. Started with an ME-Super with a K-1000 as a back-up.
Graduated to an LX and three different viewfinders. Mostly use an X-5 Digital now.

 

[Shinpachi]

Excellent choice, Old Wizard
I don't doubt that you would be thinking the K-1 sooner or later.

I remember now that I still have an active Pentax in my hands. It's Optio M30.
It seems hard to forget the iconic brand for me completely
Thanks !

 

[Airframes]

I can understand how you feel about the Pentax. I was the same with my Olympus SLRs, which I used for over twenty years. I sold them to an enthusiast a few years ago, and when my youngest daughter found out, she was mad with me !
I hadn't realised she had the interest in photography, and would have loved to have the Olympus stuff !

 

[Gnomey]

Good to see the repair worked successfully shinpachi! Also good to see the passion continue on in your family .

 

[Shinpachi]

Great collection of Olympus SLRs, Terry !
I hope you would teach your daughter an important fact that Nikon is much better and her father's decision was not necessarily wrong

* I love Olympus compact digital cameras too as Wayne witnessed last year, though

***********************************************

Thanks for your kind comment, Hugh too !
I think my daughter has married a very nice guy who minds his wife's father sincerely

 

[Shinpachi]

How to repair old Nikon -
This may be a good chance for me to introduce my recent other attempts.

Nikomat (Nikkormat in overseas) FTn
Production period: 1967 - circa 1974

Trouble & Solution
1. Light meter didn't work well.
Electric contacts needed cleaning.

2. Self-timer didn't work as the lever was slippery.
The shaft and gear connection inside was slippery. Made 2 holes to fix with 2 rivets.

This is still a beautiful camera and I love this together with other film cameras
Thanks !

 

[Shinpachi]

Because it is not easy to find out original cases for old cameras, I sometimes make the bottom case so that I can hold the camera firmly.

For Minolta SR(T)-101

For Nikon FE

Thanks !

 

[Wayne Little]

Let me tell you Shinpachi has a nice collection of Cameras..!