Mechanical camera repair, by post or in person
Leaf shutters, cloth curtains and brass helicoids, stripped to the last screw, cleaned, re-lubricated and timed on a bench tester. Fixed prices, a quoted turnaround, and a log of every job we take.
Every price below is the labour for a complete job on a typical example of that camera. Parts are extra and quoted before we start. Turnaround is counted from the day your camera lands on the bench, and we tell you if it slips.
| Service | Labour | Turnaround |
|---|---|---|
| Rangefinders, 35mm Leica, Canon, Nikon, Contax, Zeiss Ikon | ||
| Full clean, lubricate and adjustShutter strip, curtain tension, slow-speed escapement, rangefinder, all speeds timed. | $325 | 4 to 5 weeks |
| Rangefinder alignment onlyVertical and infinity, checked on a collimator at three distances. | $95 | 1 week |
| Cloth curtain replacement, pairHand-cut rubberised silk, original ribbon widths, tension set from scratch. | $210 | 5 to 6 weeks |
| Viewfinder haze and separation cleanPrisms out, beamsplitter cleaned or re-silvered, frame lines re-registered. | $140 | 2 weeks |
| Single-lens reflex, 35mm Nikon F and F2, Pentax, Olympus, Canon F-1, Minolta | ||
| Full service, mechanical bodyShutter, mirror box, wind train and self-timer stripped and re-lubricated; speeds timed. | $285 | 4 weeks |
| Mirror and light seal foam replacementOld foam removed, new closed-cell seals cut to the channel. | $85 | 1 week |
| Meter recalibration to modern cellsSilver oxide or air-cell adaptation, bridge trimmed to within a third of a stop. | $70 | 1 week |
| Prism desilvering repairCommon on OM-1 and Spotmatic bodies. Replacement prism or re-silvering, foam fixed so it does not recur. | $160 | 3 weeks |
| Twin-lens reflex Rolleiflex, Rolleicord, Yashica, Minolta Autocord | ||
| Full clean, lubricate and adjustLeaf shutter overhaul, focus helicoid regreased, both lenses cleaned, screen and mirror matched. | $295 | 4 to 5 weeks |
| Focus screen upgrade and mirror cleanBrighter screen fitted and shimmed so the taking lens agrees with it. | $120 | 2 weeks |
| Leaf shutter overhaul onlyShutter out, ultrasonic clean, escapement oiled, timed at every speed. | $175 | 3 weeks |
| Folders and medium format Zeiss Ikon, Voigtländer, Hasselblad, Mamiya, Pentax 67 | ||
| Bellows replacement, hand-cutMade to the original pattern in light-tight cloth, glued and left to cure a full week. | $260 | 6 weeks |
| Leaf shutter overhaulCompur, Prontor, Copal and Seikosha. Slow speeds are usually the reason you are here. | $165 | 3 weeks |
| Hasselblad 500 series body serviceWind train, mirror damper, rear baffle and lens interlock; jammed bodies freed at no extra charge. | $340 | 5 weeks |
| Hasselblad lens shutter serviceShutter and aperture stripped, cocking ring adjusted, timed on the tester. | $210 | 4 weeks |
| Large format lenses and shutters Copal, Compur, Ilex, Schneider, Rodenstock, Fujinon | ||
| Shutter overhaul, up to size 1Strip, clean, re-lubricate, all speeds within a sixth of a stop, flash sync checked. | $155 | 3 weeks |
| Shutter overhaul, size 3 and largerIncludes Ilex and older Compound shutters with pneumatic retards. | $220 | 4 weeks |
| Element separation, rebalsamCemented groups split, cleaned and re-cemented with synthetic balsam, then centred. | $240 | 8 weeks |
| Fungus and haze clean, per lensEvery element out and cleaned. Etched coatings are reported honestly, not hidden. | $110 | 2 weeks |
Anything not on the list is $40 to look at, and that fee comes off the job if you go ahead. If we open a camera and find it is not worth the labour, we tell you, close it up, and charge nothing beyond the estimate. Quotes are held for 30 days.
Mechanical bodies and shutters from roughly 1930 to 1985. If yours is on this list, send it. If it is not, write to us with the model and a photograph and we will tell you in a day whether it belongs on our bench or someone else's.
Autofocus bodies, anything digital, Polaroid and instant cameras, motor drives, and most Soviet reflex bodies. We can usually name a workshop that does take them, so ask.
People write asking for "a clean, lube and adjust" and mean nine different things by it. Here is exactly what ours is. Every camera that leaves the workshop under a full service has had all nine.
Every mechanical assembly comes out. We do not flush a shutter in place and call it serviced.
Blades, levers, cams and the escapement go through two baths, then are dried and inspected under a loupe.
Hardened grease is the reason most slow speeds hang. It is all gone before anything new goes in.
Four different oils and greases, each chosen for the load and temperature of the part it lands on, applied by needle.
Curtain travel or blade opening measured on a Kyoritsu tester. We aim for a sixth of a stop and write the results on your ticket.
Focus checked at infinity, three metres and the closest distance, on a collimator, and the screen or rangefinder set to match the film plane.
New closed-cell foam or wool, cut to the channel. Mirror damper replaced so the foam never reaches the prism.
Vulcanite lifted edges glued back down. We do not polish brass through the paint unless you ask.
A short roll through the camera, developed here, checked for capping, light leaks and focus before it goes back in the box.
The last six jobs off the bench, written up the way they go on the ticket. Owners' names are left off; the faults are exactly as found. We keep this so you can see what a service turns up and how long it really took.
Leica M3, single stroke, 1958
Slow speeds hanging from an eighth downward; second curtain capping at a thousandth.
Escapement out and cleaned, hardened grease in the slow-speed train. Curtain tension reset from scratch, both curtains within a twelfth of a stop across the gate. Rangefinder infinity corrected by a hair. 29 days on the bench.
Rolleiflex 2.8F, Planar
Focus stiff enough to move the strap lugs; taking lens hazed; screen dim.
Helicoid stripped and regreased, front group cleaned inside, no coating damage. Brighter screen fitted and shimmed to the taking lens. Shutter timed, all speeds within a sixth. 31 days.
Nikon F2 Photomic
Meter dead. Mirror foam turned to tar and reaching the screen.
Foams replaced throughout. Ring resistor in the finder cleaned, battery contacts re-tensioned, meter now within a third of a stop at every value. Body speeds checked, no service needed. 9 days.
Hasselblad 500C, 1969
Body jammed with the 80mm lens locked on mid-cycle.
Lens freed with the release tool, no damage to the drive shaft. Body now stripped for a full service: wind train worn, mirror damper gone. Awaiting the owner's word on a rear baffle.
Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta 532/16
Pinholes along every bellows fold; shutter capping at the two fastest speeds.
Synchro-Compur overhauled and timed. New bellows cut to the original pattern and glued; curing until the 11th before it goes back on the standard.
Schneider Symmar 210mm in Copal 1
Running a full stop slow at the two fastest speeds; aperture blades oily.
Shutter stripped and cleaned, aperture blades degreased, main spring within limits. All speeds within a sixth of a stop, flash sync confirmed. 16 days.
Most of our work arrives by post. Four steps, and the only one that takes any time is packing it properly. Nothing is opened, let alone worked on, until you have seen a quote and said yes.
Email service@ostrandercameraworks.com with the make and model, what it is doing wrong, and your return address. A photograph helps. We reply inside a working day with a job number; put that number in the box.
Cameras are lost to shipping far more often than to age. Please do all of these:
Any carrier is fine. Insure for what it would cost to replace, not what you paid in 1994. We sign for everything and email you the moment it arrives.
Within three working days of arrival you get a written quote with the turnaround. Say yes and it joins the queue; say no and we send it back for the cost of postage. You will hear from us when it goes on the bench and again when it comes off.
2318 Northwest Thurman Street
rear workshop, through the gate
Portland, Oregon 97210
A Kyoritsu shutter tester, a collimator, an ultrasonic bath and an autocollimator for lens centring. Nothing leaves without going across all of them.
Curtain cloth, Compur springs, Leica and Nikon foams, Rollei screens, and around 300 donor bodies for the parts nobody makes any more.
Cut and folded here for Ikontas, Bessas, Makinas and field cameras. Bring the old one; we take the pattern from it.
Every full service ends with a test roll developed in the darkroom next door, checked on a light table before we box the camera.
Trained under her father Nils, who opened the bench in 1987 after twenty years at Zeiss Ikon in Stuttgart. Runs the Compur and Leica work.
Joined in 2014 from a clock workshop in Eugene. Takes the Nikon, Hasselblad and view-camera shutters, and cuts the bellows.