Twenty Questions with Eric Hendrickson

An interview with a master Pentax repairman

By K David in Columns on Jan 28, 2016

Editor's note: Today we're happy to present an exclusive interview with Eric Hendrickson, an extremely talented Pentax repairman with decades of experience servicing Pentax cameras and lenses.  He's gained a reputation on the forum as the go-to person for vintage Pentax SLR repairs and more.

Autumn in Knoxville, Tennessee, defines itself with a color-abundance that fills the area with postcard-grade sights of tree-arched roadways . Knoxville fills the space between summer and winter with an antebellum love letter in color accompanied by the scents of fallen leaves, rain-washed air, and a slight chill in the air that makes a cup of coffee feel especially warm beneath fingertips. Pentax Forums traveled to Knoxville in such an autumn for an in-person interview with Eric Hendrickson, whose reputation here needs no introduction.

Knoxville's airport greets visitors, after passing from the gate area, with an indoor water feature, a raised creek set among stones and passengers waiting in line for security. I arrived in Knoxville after a longer-than-hoped, earlier-than-wanted flight to learn that the standard car I had rented was not available but that I could have the last car on the lot. The car was a Dodge Ram 2500 quad cab will full bed and was, by at least six feet, the longest single-vehicle I had ever driven. By a liter, it was the largest engine I had driven and exhaling on the gas pedal caused the truck to lunge forward with a roar straight from a monster movie.

I drove the Ram on tree-shrouded Southern roads, yellow leaves falling from the canopy in front of and around me, spinning as they fell, slowly working through the air like a drill through wood. On more than one occasion, the Ram, too wide for the Knoxville country roads, needed its mirrors folded in to let other cars pass. But it's hard to remember anything other than the roadsides, lined with a thin layer of golden leaves, gilded like the outside faces of Bible pages.

Eric lives in a small home at the end of a side street that branches off another side street that starts at a residential road that connects to a small, local thoroughfare. The setting is quiet, feeling ideal for the detailed, focused work of removing tiny screws, adjusting gears, and cleaning dust-solidified lubricants from inside clockwork camera mechanisms.

Gone are the days on the Hendrickson farm, the outbuilding dedicated to camera repair and the walls of shelves of spare cameras, parts bodies, and the largest Pentax spares stockpile assembled outside of a Pentax factory. Eric's shop now is a single room with essential equipment, a small stockpile of common replacement pieces, and a well lit and tidily organized roll-top desk.

Hay Bales on the Old Farm

Eric greeted me warmly, as we have talked often for the last four years about cameras, dogs, and other things. He welcomed me into his home with a coffee and a strong, I-would-vote-for-this-guy-grade handshake. We sat on his couch and started our much-delayed interview for Pentax Forums.

Dear Pentax: Never Build a "Full Frame" Camera

Photography is over film. You should be, too!

By cjfeola in Columns on Jun 16, 2014

Dear Pentax,

Please never, ever, under any circumstances build a "35mm Full Frame" DSLR.

It wouldn't be very…Pentaxian. And "35mm Full Frames" are kin to the fax machine and transistor radio, and will suffer the same fate for the same reasons.

Technology is utterly predictable in the same fashion as the weather. Specifics are hard, and get harder the further out you look. Will it rain? September 22? 2038?

But the general trends are obvious to the point of boredom.  Summers hot; winters cold; carry on.

Technology is exactly the same. What will be the must-have gadget? September 22? 2038?

But general technology trends follow a very specific pattern:

  1. New technology is introduced
  2. The new technology is used to build better versions of the best designs of the old technology
  3. After the new technology has been in use long enough – generally around a decade – new designs begin to emerge
  4. As new designs emerge, the old ones left over from the previous tech die off

Digital photography is entering Stage Four. DSLRs and "35mm Full Frames" will be, at best, expensive niche products.

Recent life is rife with examples. Remember the candy-bar cell phone? It was basically a cordless phone with more range. Remember the one-line screen above the buttons that showed Caller ID? Check out the phone in your pocket – screen's a bit bigger, no? And where are the buttons?

DIY: Turn any Manual Pentax Lens into a Cine Lens

Declicking Pentax Lenses: New Hot Video, Old Trusty Lens

By Mister Guy in Columns on May 28, 2016

Many articles on Pentax Forums try to give you opportunities to click your way to a bargain.  This is about how and why you might go the other way.  The beautiful quality and feel of legacy Pentax glass might give you a good enough reason to consider popping to a used lens store and declicking your way to a deal!

In essence, by declicking a lens, you can make the aperture ring turn as smoothly as the focusing ring.  This can have many benefits, especially if you're into shooting video.  Read on to learn all about it.

I'm Glad the HD Limiteds are More Expensive

A reflection on recent reactions

By Heie in Columns on Aug 29, 2013

Recently, the news of lens updates have been unique. By unique I mean anything that doesn’t revolve around the mythical Full Frame that unfortunately has so much passionate (and sometimes vitriolic) discussion you would think it actually existed. And for the past decade.

But instead, PENTAX has thrown us a curveball, stating that its entire line of DA Limited lenses will be updated. The Limited line comprises a suite of five currently: the DA 15, 21, 35 Macro, 40, and 70 Limiteds. Despite what at face value would be considered a shortcoming – an obvious lack of speed due to their relatively slow apertures – the DA Limiteds are a set of lenses that have earned a very passionate zealotry, and for good reason. What they lack in speed – which must be realized was a purposeful decision – they more than make up for in image quality, rendering, and most strikingly, their incredibly diminutive size. Combine that with build quality that many have compared to the likes of Leica and Zeiss, and it’s easy to see that for the prime shooter – especially the APS-C (crop sensor) system user – there really is no equal. Especially for the price.

Tablets for Photographers

Road Warrior Tools- can you take it all with you?

By cjfeola in Columns on Jul 25, 2014

When you're a foreign correspondent, packing becomes a science. For years I lived out of a duffel that went over one shoulder and a Domke bag that went over the other. It got so that I could land in Tokyo, develop film and print while doing laundry, hand load more film canisters, replace batteries, repack and be on a plane headed out in 24 hours.

When you pack like that you become fairly particular, about size and weight and speed, and the little things that make travel work. I developed a habit of carrying every type of money in different pockets. That way when I woke up in the morning and couldn’t remember what hotel, city or even country I was in, I could head down to the lobby, follow my nose to the coffee, and keep pulling things out of my pockets until they gave me several cups.

When digital cameras replaced film, I started thinking about a digital road warrior kit: a single bag with cameras, lens, and some way to process the files and then upload them for safe keeping.

I started with laptops, and while they worked, they were always too big, too clunky and took too long to boot up for my tastes. Also, my family never seemed to believe that I would be “just a few minutes” when I dragged a laptop out on vacation…

Tablets would seem to be the perfect answer, so of course I’ve tried. Several. For the last two years I’ve carried an iPad Mini, which I’ve now replaced with the Asus T100.

I’ll start with the Asus, since most are familiar with iPads big and small. In a nutshell: the Asus T100 is the Pentax K-01 of tablets.

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