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MyPentax

Here you will find information on repairing a variety of cameras, currently including some classic Pentax, Nikon, and Canon SLR cameras.

You will also find a variety of links to other photography sources on the net.

This site does not set out to teach photography, or photographic technique, though you will find sites which do on my links page. I may express a few opinions on the nature of photography, and a few observations about photographic composition etc. But I am not a teacher of photography, and I'm not even sure photography can be taught. (Certainly not in the same way as a foreign language or mathematics can be taught.)

The information on the pages deal with common problems encountered with the cameras covered, all illustrated with photographs of the actual cameras repaired.

The advice here is not intended to replace the original service manuals for these cameras, and copies cannot be downloaded directly from this site. (Though you may be able to find these on my repair manual links page.) What This site is about is helping the photographer maintain and repair their own camera, a service which for many models is no longer available, or prohibitively expensive.

This means that disassembly of each camera will, for the most part only go as far as required to perform the required procedure. This is what a repair professional would do, and not only does this save time, but avoids the situation often encountered whereby you end up with a box full of hundreds of tiny parts with little idea of how to put it back together. (I've already done that bit for you!)

Also, for many cameras the required service information is unavailable, at any price from any source. In these cases the procedures will be based on dismantlement of scrap or broken cameras. Hopefully I will be able to create a reference resource for these.

Where possible therefore the tools used in these procedures will be commonplace tools, available from most hardware shops and do-it-yourself outlets, or modifications of such tools to serve the purpose. In some cases however special tools will be unavoidable, but in almost all of these should be available relatively cheaply from online sources.

Ok in at least one case I use an oscilloscope, which will not normally be a cheap item, but the tests done do not require a high specification for the instrument. So should you decide to get one, a second-hand cheapo 'scope should be sufficient, and be available for relatively little money. (My first scope only cost me the taxi fare to pick it up! It was also built in the early 1950's full of vacuum tubes, and weighed about 75 pounds.)

Also covered are some simple techniques for checking the calibration of camera light-meters, and general notes for these.

This site is very much a work-in-progress and new pages, and areas will be added as time and availability of resources allow. It is my intention to include on this site, other pages with more general technical information on photography and photographic techniques, as well as set up an exchange forum for information.

As thing are,it's a bit basic at the moment, and some of the pages need tidying-up, and are a bit slow to download. But at least it's there!

Please navigate to my Site Map page to browse this site.

If you would prefer to buy a camera body or lens with all this work already done, then check out my auctions on CQout (User 'alchemicphoto') It's like eBay but better.

CQout has very strict policing of sellers, so it is a much safer selling venue. They will actively mediate in disputes, and permanently ban poor sellers. (Their chief tech' explained how they make sure that someone does not just sign-up with a new account. At the very least you would have to replace your PC, move house, and change your bank account, and your internet service provider.) Listings are free and commission is low, and they run their own in-house escrow service. They even phone you personally to make sure that you are happy!

I also have an eBay shop (Alchemic Photography) Where you can order all sort of other photographic gear, as well as cameras.

Also I have a selection of salvaged parts which you may need to repair your camera, many of which are listed for sale.

If you have any comments please use my feedback mailer to contact me safely.

Thank you.

Gordon Ian Stalker BSc

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My Links Policy

There once was a lot of fuss made over so-called 'deep linking'. That is to say some people objected to other people linking to pages on their site other than their home page. They argued that this infringed copyright, or that it was 'stealing bandwidth'. This is nonsense. What in fact they were objecting to was that deep-linking missed the advertising that they had placed on or was linked to their home page, or were unable to find their sales page in order to buy what they were selling. In effect they were trying to prosecute other people over their failure to properly design their websites.

The fact that it is very annoying for visitors to one page their site not to be able to access the rest of the site did not seem to have penetrated their thick corporate skulls.

I can remember when trying to locate parts I would often find a page with just what I wanted, but was completely unable to find out who was selling them! Occasionally when I did manage to find their home page, it would turn out to be some useless (to me at any rate) presentation all about what a marvelous investment opportunity this company presented. Which seemed laughable to me, as the notion that a company that it was virtually impossible to buy from, should be a good investment does not make sense!

In all cases that I know of where this got as far as a courtroom, it turns out that in fact some other (real) infringement had taken place. (These include hot-linking images into an external pare, or creating a bogus 'home' page linking to the real site content.)

So my linking policy is simple. You may not embed hot-links to any of the images on this site on any of your web-pages. Nor may you make copies of any of the content for publication without my permission. Those are copyright infringements, and are not permitted.

If you link to any page on this website, it must be clear that it is an external link and not a page you have created yourself, and the linking page must have content relevant to the linked page. Links clearly not complying with this policy will be considered unacceptable use of copyright material
 
Note: If your browser objects to embedded java-scripts or activex controls on this web-page please alter your browser security settings for this site. The only such code placed on these pages is that supplied in order to place advertising links on this page which help fund this website. These are from reputable advertising agents and to my knowledge contain no harmful content.