Customer Reviews

Care and Repair of Classic Cameras for Photographers and Collectors

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Joe Lippincott is a working photojournalist who took up repairing his own mechanical cameras out of necessity and has produced a very nice book on this subject.

Lippincott covers all the bases of mechanical camera repair that he feels the beginning and intermediate technician or hobbyist is safely capable of, and directs readers to "know when to say when" and send the unit in to professional facilities with fixturing and experience in the particulars involved. He covers repair, tools needed, modifications, and use of these cameras, with detailed assembly descriptions in many cases.

Previously, the Ed Romney book, "Trade Secrets: Basic Training in Camera Repair", a volume published by Romney via toner process and GBC-bound, was the standard reference for beginners outside the "secret society" of professionals. Romney passed away in 1992, and his books suffered from time as hard use would cause them to disintegrate or the paper would age poorly-they were in essence photocopies.

Also, many readers objected to Romnney's political and religious views which Romney occasionally digressed upon in his books and extensively on Usenet. Lippincott is strictly focused, makes no statements anyone anywhere could object to, and this book is very professionally offset print and bound.

Lippincott's book is much more tightly focused than Romney's, which makes it less suitable as a casual primer or background read for the photographer just wanting an overview, but more useful to someone with good mechanical aptitude who wants to start in on a camera with minimal fuss.

Romney's professional background in electronics-he wrote extensively on Amateur Radio and repair of vintage equipment-puts him ahead of Lippincott, who repeatedly refers to the unit of capacitance as the "ferrung" and shows little inclination for working on electronic cameras,in that department.

Is Lippincott better than Romney? In some ways, clearly so, and in others I would prefer Romney's book combined with the specific service manual for the camera involved. (Many of which Romney reprinted as well.) The fact is, I like both of them and hopefully someone will eventually publish Romney's work in a proper book, preferably durably shop-manual bound on acid free paper. In the meantime, I recommend this book without reservation for people intent on repairing _mechanical_ cameras.

Despite the book's all encompassing, comprehensive title, the information contained within is a series of very specialized essays on a number of small topics. Look at the table of contents and/or index to see if the topic you are interested in is covered. If it is not; look elsewhere.
For the topics covered, the text and illustrations are very good.
Good for what it covers.

The author's depth of experience and knowledge is refreshing in an age of articles and books particularly online by people who's credentials are questionable at best.

Having been a student of photography for over 20 years I was surprised that I learned some new things about using cameras and lenses.
RE: repair this is the best book I've seen of general explanation, Quick fixes, and do it yourself kind of stuff, it is not as comprehensive a repair manual like Thomas Thomsey or Romney, but a well experienced knowledgeable working photographer sharing his long experience with readers.

If your looking for a reference in the for Dummies spirit I highly recommend this book.

Jay

Perhaps not as all-encompassing as it could be, Joe Lipincott's book still provides a lot of valuable information and belongs in the reference library of any camera collector.