I've got an old Ricoh XR500. Its so old, it's as old as me... 26 years. It's so O-L-D, the technician said even if he goes to Japan, there might not be parts for it. It's so O-L-D the receptioninst was dissing me that I held that equipment with such high esteem.
My dad bought it after saving up for it back in 1978. He paid about SGD$600 for it - body and 50mm f1.8 prime (which is about $1200 today) . It was his prized possession. And then, in a pseudo-ritual of passing the baton to the next generation, he officially gave it to me about 3 months back. All this while sitting in his cupboard for the past 10-15years lying dormant.
Its not a heaven sent, but its a great equipment for it's time. Fully manual, 8sec-1/800 shutter speed with "B" mode as well. Fast focusing, fast and simple metering, conspicuos enough for street shoots. And so I decided to send it in for maintenance and repairs. The technician at SIGMA (some blehdy e-centre @ redhill which was damn blehdy hard to find, plus i was drenched in the rain :angry: and kenna dissed by recept girl some more) quoted me $150 for 3-4 weeks worth of repairs. And to cover his backside, he said "I will try my best to repair it for you cos parts are hard to come by for this model. No quarantee that your shutter will work perfectly after repairs.. you may use for a few months then shutter spoil dun blame me ok..."
And so I sat weighing between "let it collect dust" and "let it arise, and awake". In about 2mins, I told the technician, "ok. repair it for me."
Was it dumb of me to plonk down $150 for a job that might not turn out good? Its like paying $30,000 for a complex surgery and the doctor says..."he's a 50-50, son"...
Or should I have just saved on my $150, top-up another $200 and get an entry-level SLR?
My dad bought it after saving up for it back in 1978. He paid about SGD$600 for it - body and 50mm f1.8 prime (which is about $1200 today) . It was his prized possession. And then, in a pseudo-ritual of passing the baton to the next generation, he officially gave it to me about 3 months back. All this while sitting in his cupboard for the past 10-15years lying dormant.
Its not a heaven sent, but its a great equipment for it's time. Fully manual, 8sec-1/800 shutter speed with "B" mode as well. Fast focusing, fast and simple metering, conspicuos enough for street shoots. And so I decided to send it in for maintenance and repairs. The technician at SIGMA (some blehdy e-centre @ redhill which was damn blehdy hard to find, plus i was drenched in the rain :angry: and kenna dissed by recept girl some more) quoted me $150 for 3-4 weeks worth of repairs. And to cover his backside, he said "I will try my best to repair it for you cos parts are hard to come by for this model. No quarantee that your shutter will work perfectly after repairs.. you may use for a few months then shutter spoil dun blame me ok..."
And so I sat weighing between "let it collect dust" and "let it arise, and awake". In about 2mins, I told the technician, "ok. repair it for me."
Was it dumb of me to plonk down $150 for a job that might not turn out good? Its like paying $30,000 for a complex surgery and the doctor says..."he's a 50-50, son"...
Or should I have just saved on my $150, top-up another $200 and get an entry-level SLR?
