Got A New Camera Today!

I just bought a new camera: a Canon Powershot A620. This camera was new around 7 or 8 years ago. I think it went for around $300.  Back then I bought a much cheaper model – maybe it was an A460 or A560 or something like that - at about half the price. That was a fun camera; we traveled lots of miles together. And I managed to shoot some great stuff with it, even some of the photos currently on my web site.

This afternoon, this Canon camera cost me $8.00 at a local thrift shop. It came with a wrist strap and a memory card. Not too bad a buy. So of course I immediately got to thinking about current equipment, much of it crap, and the ridiculously high prices we have apparently come to accept. High end “Point and Shoot” cameras have become hip fashion accessories. Wander around Chelsea on a Thursday evening (gallery opening night) or the Meat Market after midnight and you will see easily spot the latest fad cameras, most in the $1500+ price range, slung over the shoulders of the prancing fashionistas. I find this offensive on lotsa levels. I am tempted to suggest that they perform painful acts with those cameras.  Anyway...................... Here's the thing:

My first “professional” 35mm cameras were a pair of second hand Nikon F's. At the time, they were the top of the line SLR's and I could actually afford them when I was still working as an assistant. I used those 2 cameras for years, then traded up to Nikon F2's and used those for a lot more years. Early on, I also got 2 Leicas,  (an M-2 and an M-4 if anyone is interested) purchased used and both around 20 years old when I got them. After nearly 30 years of pretty consistent use, they are still in perfect working shape, retired and living in my safe. Absolutely can not bear to part with them.

These cameras were made to last. Yeah, they needed repairs from time to time. My Nikons were serviced by a guy named Marty Forscher. He ran a shop on West 47^th Street called Professional Camera Repair. It was a wonderful place, almost like a private club for professional photographers. A couple of dozen people worked there, but you always had to wait for at least 45 minutes. This wasn't too bad: there was a great bulletin board with notes on all sorts of stuff for sale, ads by freelance assistants, professional services and like that. Chances were that while waiting, I'd run into somebody I knew, maybe end up bemoaning the state of the profession – and Marty's prices - over coffee later on at the diner across the street.

Anyway, among the work stations back behind the counter were cabinets hundreds of small file draws and bins. These were filled with camera parts and pieces. Lots of new parts, but there were also old cameras to be cannibalized for repair parts. This crew could also fix anything photographic. Like my Nikon SP that I dropped one tragic afternoon. It was a rangefinder camera. Most people don't know Nikon ever made RF cameras, but they did. In fact, they started with RF's. But that's another story. So here I was with mine which now rattled when I shook it. That fall had cracked the prism in the rangefinder and probably broke loose a few other tiny pieces. Even though the camera was long out of production, Marty managed to find the replacement parts and fix it. It was that kind of place.

Leica had a repair service in New Jersey, but on the rare occasions when my Leicas needed service, I usually sent them to a lady named Sherry. She ran her own repair service in a town someplace upstate. The address was on a street named Purgatory Road. Really. I also bought one of my Leica's from her. Sherry had been trained at the Leica factory in Germany, was scary smart when it came to those cameras. She kept mine working for all those years.

Anyway, around 8 years ago, my Nikon outfit went to a new owner via eBay. I bought new professional digital Canon DSLR outfit: 2 bodies, 3 lenses, new strobes, battery grips and so on., at about the cost of a good used car. Since I bought those, Canon has “upgraded” this model 5 different times.

Early last year, I found out that Canon would no longer be “supporting” this model. Translation: they would no longer fix them. Not even clean the sensor. The problem is that there is no other repair shop to bring them to. When one of these electronic marvels breaks down, the usual repair is to pull out the non-working components and drop in new ones. The new components are made by the folks who made the camera, so when they decide that they don't want to fix a particular model, that's it. Should those cameras stop working, I would own a matched pair of paperweights. The only alternative is to regularly replace perfectly good equipment with new – and more expensive – models.

And then there's this camera. Technically, I can get it to do about 80% of the stuff that Leica's newest 'Point and Shoot' pocket camera will do. One difference between them is my 'new' Powershot cost $8.00. The Leica costs around $2,500. I am amazed that I found this Powershot in such good condition. I doubt that those Leica's will last 8 years. There is some justice in that, someplace.

And that's today's rant.

www.mauryenglander.com