[ctrout]

It's not just the money spent on acquiring the camera and lenses, there's also the $$ I've spent on the CLA of cameras and lenses I've acquired. My mania doesn't stop at collecting and displaying -- I have to be able to shoot the gear too! (LBA/GBA is an evil mistress that will not be ignored.) :-/

That's how I kind of am too. My K needed repair and CLA which in the end cost me well into $200 if I remember correctly, AND I had Eric decomission a perfectly working K to fix the broken one and I had paid $100 for the body he took the parts from. I wanted the other one fixed because I have the original box, lens, and the warranty card showing the serial numbers of both the body and lens. I just thought that was pretty cool. Otherwise I would have just bought the $100 working K and had the CLA. That way I'd only be into it for about $200 instead of nearly $450.

I paid $85 to CLA a $23 ME SE just because it was near mint and I like brown cameras. I guess my philosophy is, if you are just buying them to display, buy the cheapest broken cameras that look nice and stick them in the display case, never to be touched again. If you are buying them to use, still buy the broke ones because they probably ALL need a CLA and more times than not, the CLA will address the reason that the camera isn't working. Why pay $100 for a "working" MX that probably needs an $85 CLA when you can pay $35 for a "broken" MX that after the CLA will be just as good as the first one?

[Jonathan Mac]

The dark side of LBA is the money I don't spend on fixing malfunctioning cameras because if I do that, I won't have it to spend on new lenses.

[pathdoc]

If you are buying them to use, still buy the broke ones because they probably ALL need a CLA and more times than not, the CLA will address the reason that the camera isn't working. Why pay $100 for a "working" MX that probably needs an $85 CLA when you can pay $35 for a "broken" MX that after the CLA will be just as good as the first one?

On the surface I agree, but this presumes the camera is not so broken that Eric is forced to issue the dread verdict: "Beyond economical repair." In which case you are down the cost of the broken camera and the shipping to him, and must start all over again. (OTOH you have provided him with useful parts for other cameras, so this is a service to Pentaxian humanity.)

I would prefer to buy a camera that is working, shoot with it a bit, decide I like it enough to give it a going over, and then the CLA is in the way of a mid-life refit which will likely keep the camera going - at least mechanically - till the end of my days. It's no accident that most of my film bodies are power-independent for everything but metering, and the few that aren't are either heirlooms (my wife will kill me if I sell her late father's camera) or mad indulgences that I won't shed tears over if one day they decide never to work again.

I certainly see the sense in your approach, though, and I guess it depends on how much is declared by the seller as dead & how honest they are. "KM, dead meter, otherwise OK" is a different kettle of fish from "LX, not working, for parts or repair". The first is a job Eric will probably give over to his apprentice with a high probability of customer satisfaction with the end result; the second is becoming something of a major gamble, with Eric potentially having to break bad news akin to a doctor announcing the death of the patient in surgery.

[ctrout]

I do understand that there is risk associated with buying a non working camera. That's why my K was so costly to repair. With one exception though, all of the cameras that I bought in working condition have been exceptional cosmetically and I have waited for an exceptional price on them. My MIJ K1000 SE was $40 and I got a mint ME SE for $23. The one exception was my LX. Because of it's unique position in terms of repairability I determined that it would be worth the money to buy the very best example I could find even if I had to pay a premium for it. It is in as-new condition and I spent $300 for it.

On the other end of the spectrum, I got one of my KXs in a lot of three "broken" cameras for $30. The KX had a non firing hot shoe and was otherwise in near mint condition. I easily returned the hot shoe to working status. One of the cameras was not repairable by me so I used it for parts. The other one in the lot was an ME Super with the typical mirror up failure. This one was returned to working status by cleaning and lubing the linkage on the mirror box and resold on ebay for around $40. My net cost for the excellent condition, now fully functional KX was essentially someone paying me $10 to take it.

[gutter rock]

I have literally lost my mind and went bonkers in the last 6 months. I was planning on saving for a K-1 dslr until I realized that I kinda hate digital and missed film. So, I justified saving the $1800 by picking up a ton of film Pentax cameras. LX, MX, KX, ME, ME Super, MG, PZ-1P, SF1N, and 645. It is ridiculous and I really should part with some of them but I like them all for different reasons. I didn't plan on collecting, I had distinct reasons for each of them. However, I don't have enough free time to keep them all properly exercised!

[ctrout]

That's exactly how I feel. I have one advantage though. As a school teacher, my last work day is tomorrow so I plan on getting mine out and exercising them all over summer vacation, starting with my Mamiya RB67 ProS. I have run a roll through my LX over Christmas and I had one of the Super Programs out anout two weeks ago. I have a roll in my K right now that I started quite a few weeks ago and just haven't found the time to finish it, maybe this weekend. After all that I'll probably stretch the legs on one of the KXs, followed by the ME, then the ME Super, then the SV. I think what I should try to do is run a roll through one camera each week this summer.

[Arjay Bee]

Why pay $100 for a "working" MX that probably needs an $85 CLA when you can pay $35 for a "broken" MX that after the CLA will be just as good as the first one?

This was the thought I had - Internals were very bad on my copy so CLA was very needed. The CLA returns a below average body to the top of the active list.

[ffking]

lovely looking camera - those cameras were only vehicles for film and lenses - you provided a good eye and developing skills - and yet they were lovely objects - a pleasure to hold and own. Every time we get too wound up about tech, we should just pick one of those cameras up for a few minutes.