Originally posted by ronpyke ...There are no handy repair shops in the back country of Iraq, or on the West Bank (2 upcoming assignment locations), nor can I afford to ship my camera off for long weeks while the local service centre waits for parts from Pentax...
A colleague and very good friend (
Caroline-Alida | Photography ) was on assignment whit her Hasselblad 500 C/M In Mali, that's about central Africa, when her camera broke down in the middle of the bush.
The film transport was blocked, she couldn't turn the transport crank anymore and by this the lens/shutter wasn't armed and couldn't be removed, so nothing worked.
Her local guide took her to a local craftsman to have her Hasselblad repaired. When asked, the man never had seen a Hasselblad in his life and hardly had a table, let alone some descent tools, in his straw and adobe made cabin, but he ensured her that he could repair 'that thing' and told her to come back next day.
Desperate as she was she left her camera withe the man. Next day, at noon a runner came to tell (there is no telephone nor radio) that her camera was repaired. Indeed, all worked fine! The craftsman told her that he just disassembled everything, then reassembled and greased the whole bunch and that was it. The price was two chickens, money is rather useless in the bush!
Back in Belgium, she took the camera to a renown repair shop. They opened the camera just to see that the wrong grease was used but that everything was correctly assembled and well adjusted. Quit normal that in the African bush the correct grease is not to hand...
I was told that Iraq is not the desolate african bush...