NikonGear'23
Introductions => Introduce Yourself => Topic started by: richardHaw on February 05, 2016, 07:13:40
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Hello,everybody. you can call me Rick. I live in Tokyo and i scavenge for junk nikkors in the junk section of the camera shops here in my city. sometimes, i would also buy lenses that are not junk as well to treat myself to something good from time to time (with the permission of my wife) ::)
apart from actually shooting and using the gears that i buy, i also clean and fix classic Nikkors (sometimes newer ones, post Ai-s era). I got into this Nikkor maintenance thing as I always get duped by the rats in Yahoo! Auctions. that place is filled with scum and the rules there are only mere suggestions. it is the underworld flea market for used camera gear in Japan. :o :o :o
i am on a personal mission to share my repair notes with the rest of the Nikon community so I have started my own blog at http://richardhaw.com/ where I also contribute to Nikon Rumors from time to time. the impetus for the blog is my desire for other people to avoid the mistakes that i have made while fixing my Nikkors as information on the net can be scarce about the materials and parts used as well as how to crack one open and get it back. i have spent money creating and learning from these mistakes and i would be very happy if i stopped you from wasting your own cash and time by sharing my notes and experience. note that i am blogging from the point of view of an angry amateur repairman but rest assured that my heart and dedication will always be with you!
may i also add that I am happy to be amongst people who also share a similar passion (Nikkor maintenance) and I hope that we can all have a grand time talking about lens repair!
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Welcome! You WILL find someone here that share your passion for butchering and repairing old nikon gear. Me, I am more of destroyer than a fixer ;)
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Welcome! You WILL find someone here that share your passion for butchering and repairing old nikon gear. Me, I am more of destroyer than a fixer ;)
hello! Glad to meet you :)
in case anybody is looking for spares or whatever, just ask me maybe i can get one on my next trip to the junk shops. my studio (i am an employee) is in shinjuku, so i usually look for them around this area but i also go out of the way to look for stuff :o :o :o
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Welcome Rick.
Your website is very interesting. Although I am technically not so very experienced (rather clumsy too), the notes and photo's on technical repair of lenses are very intriguing.
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Welcome Rick.
Your website is very interesting. Although I am technically not so very experienced (rather clumsy too), the notes and photo's on technical repair of lenses are very intriguing.
Thank you, John! they are coming from an amateur but i hope that it helps people even professionals just in case they want open up a similar lens. :o :o :o
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Welcome to NikonGear Rick! Thanks for your offer to help with spares etc ;)
I looked at some parts of your Blog - Really nice with 'how to' images and text I'm sure a lot of people here will find it very helpful!
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Welcome to NikonGear Rick! Thanks for your offer to help with spares etc ;)
I looked at some parts of your Blog - Really nice with 'how to' images and text I'm sure a lot of people here will find it very helpful!
Thank you, Erik! sometimes, i get really good stuff in the junk shops because the owner does not have any idea what that the hell that Nikkor is worth!!! :o :o :o
but lately, with the advent of mirrorless, older lenses have regained and now have exceeded their real market value. this is a good thing for photography but a bad thing for people like me who rely on junks!
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Welcome! I always startled and enchanted by people spending their lives with rare hobbies. In Erik you have obviously found a soul mate. Welcome to the forum.
Eager to see what you do with your rare glass in a photographic sense.
Welcome!
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Welcome! I always startled and enchanted by people spending their lives with rare hobbies. In Erik you have obviously found a soul mate. Welcome to the forum.
Eager to see what you do with your rare glass in a photographic sense.
Welcome!
Thank you, Frank! my work these days center around the technical aspects more than the creative (i used to do VFX, now more animation and programming), but i occasionally get jobs for photography. ::)
my everyday life is boring as a drone working here in tokyo so to make my daily commute to work more exciting and to keep my skills sharp, i document the people that i walk pass by everyday and post it in flickr :o :o :o
https://www.flickr.com/photos/31768064@N03/albums/72157659478776733
tokyo is a lovely place for doing this because of the population density ::)
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Congratulations for your site and for sharing your skills and experience.
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Welcome! Sounds like we got a second "Dr. Lens" on the forum :)
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Hi, Rick, nice to have yet another guy living in Tokyo here! Thanks for sharing your interesting blog!
We have another member living in Tokyo (Mikes) and some others who visit Tokyo occasionally. Would be nice to have some NG meeting in Tokyo with you. :)
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Welcome Richard,
Great web page, thanks for sharing it
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NG Events in Tokyo - now, that sounds great.
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It does sound nice! and an included visit at Nikon,,, Could be a lot of fun 8)
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too bad i am no longer traveling to tokyo... akira showed me some very esoteric camera shops.. indeed many.
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I follow you now on flickr. I am Gespür für Licht.
Love your street style.
esp the Woman walkin up the stairs
bw
sunshine parallel to stairs
perfect graphics.
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Congratulations for your site and for sharing your skills and experience.
Thank you, Abergon. Sharing what little knowledge I have because I do not want people to go through the mess that I had gone through due to lack of information, what ever is on the net is all scattered here and there :o :o :o
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Hi, Rick, nice to have yet another guy living in Tokyo here! Thanks for sharing your interesting blog!
We have another member living in Tokyo (Mikes) and some others who visit Tokyo occasionally. Would be nice to have some NG meeting in Tokyo with you. :)
that would be nice! and we could go junk hunting! よろしくお願いします！！！ :o :o :o
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Welcome Richard,
Great web page, thanks for sharing it
Thank you, Armando! i am going to make it look a bit more professional. :o :o :o
never realised that maintaining a blog can be this time consuming, so I thought to have google ads in there
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too bad i am no longer traveling to tokyo... akira showed me some very esoteric camera shops.. indeed many.
yes, japanese people seem to have this preoccupation of collecting and appreciating little things and curio. which in turn gives us this huge used photography equipment industry :o :o :o
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too bad i am no longer traveling to tokyo... akira showed me some very esoteric camera shops.. indeed many.
Sad to hear that, Bob. But maybe there could be another chance...
that would be nice! and we could go junk hunting! よろしくお願いします！！！ :o :o :o
I would be glad to take you to the "esoteric" camera shops to which I took Bob to. :)
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I follow you now on flickr. I am Gespür für Licht.
Love your street style.
esp the Woman walkin up the stairs
bw
sunshine parallel to stairs
perfect graphics.
thank you, Frank. that was very encouraging.
i shoot bugs mostly but they are out of season, then i would shoot stock and news but they dont pay much. events is where the money is but I do not get enough of that here in Tokyo where i have been living for a couple of years due to the language and culture barrier. I do speak so-so japanese enough to be used in a studio environment but nowhere near native level :o :o :o
i might stay in tokyo indefinitely because of the relatively low crime rate.
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Sad to hear that, Bob. But maybe there could be another chance...
I would be glad to take you to the "esoteric" camera shops to which I took Bob to. :)
I have been to most of the shops here, but still looking for the mother of all junk shops :o :o :o
our studio is in shinjuku so i pass by one or more everyday to take a peek at the junk section. i am actually going to ueno with a friend later and check the used camera shops there for junk
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Welcome here, Rick and thanks for the info on your blog. I precisely have a 50/1.4 S that would benefit from a good cleaning.
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I have been to most of the shops here, but still looking for the mother of all junk shops :o :o :o
our studio is in shinjuku so i pass by one or more everyday to take a peek at the junk section. i am actually going to ueno with a friend later and check the used camera shops there for junk
Ah ha! So, you should be well aware of or even a repeating customer of the shops like Chuko Camera Box or Shinjuku Chuko Camera Shijou.
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Welcome Richard! :D Judging by the fact that most nice copies of Nikkors on ebay come from Japan, I'm sure the second hand shops there are real treasures to dig through. Around here you are quite lucky to find Nikkors. Almost nothing but poor 3rd party offerings. :-\
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Welcome here, Rick and thanks for the info on your blog. I precisely have a 50/1.4 S that would benefit from a good cleaning.
Thank you, Bruno!
if you have the bayonet plate with the screws, one of the screws there should NOT be removed or touched. I forgot to post a picture of it but it is the one near the stop. it holds a spring and has nothing to do with supporting the lens. :o :o :o
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Ah ha! So, you should be well aware of or even a repeating customer of the shops like Chuko Camera Box or Shinjuku Chuko Camera Shijou.
i am a regular at 新宿カメラのアルプス or something like that (name is weird and i keep on forgetting it). the shop keepers know me by face and we sometimes exchange repair notes :o :o :o
lucky is also one of the places that i visit but i like camera alps the most because they have been honest and reasonably OK to me. MAP camera is a place that i have been shopping since I came here in spring of 2010. the other places, i just visit when I happen to pass by. kitamura is OK, i am hitting on one of the girls there. 中古のカメラボックス, well i have bought stuff from them throughout the years, very friendly but the junks there can be a bit pricey. miyama is the friendliest, ニューカメラ is snobbish.
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Welcome Richard! :D Judging by the fact that most nice copies of Nikkors on ebay come from Japan, I'm sure the second hand shops there are real treasures to dig through. Around here you are quite lucky to find Nikkors. Almost nothing but poor 3rd party offerings. :-\
Thank you Tristin!
the prices have gone up! :o :o :o mirrorless is driving the prices up at the moment all over the world and the demand is higher than it used to be! just take a look at the NOCT :(
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Hi, Rick, nice to have yet another guy living in Tokyo here! Thanks for sharing your interesting blog!
We have another member living in Tokyo (Mikes) and some others who visit Tokyo occasionally. Would be nice to have some NG meeting in Tokyo with you. :)
Yes, that would be nice - good suggestion, Akira.
I have noticed that one or two of the well regarded camera shops in Tokyo (for example, Mapcamera) seem to get regularly cleaned out of their quality second hand lens offerings - I suspect by individual sellers who then resell them at higher prices over ebay (as well as buyers from overseas retailers). Annoying!
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Yes, that would be nice - good suggestion, Akira.
I have noticed that one or two of the well regarded camera shops in Tokyo (for example, Mapcamera) seem to get regularly cleaned out of their quality second hand lens offerings - I suspect by individual sellers who then resell them at higher prices over ebay (as well as buyers from overseas retailers). Annoying!
i doubt that it because MAP is pricey :o :o :o they serve as the benchmark for used lenses as far as pricing goes...
the people who buy them are mainland chinese tourists. i have seen that many times, where a small group would fill a suitcase full of camera stuff :o :o :o
the sellers are probably the same rats in Yahoo! Auctions. it is rare to find an honest seller there, always some problems. >:( >:( >:(
fujiya used to be awesome, now it's pathetic. i live close to Nakano and i can bike there if i wanted to or get groceries with my baby there but I just skip it...
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BIG welcome to the site from Mongo , Richard. You are after Mongo's own heart. Love your site and the useful and interesting things you get up to. Also, thanks for your kind offer to assist where possible. Look forward to your posts.
PS - Mongo absolutely loved his visit to shinjuku (and Japan generally) last year.
regards from
Mongo
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BIG welcome to the site from Mongo , Richard. You are after Mongo's own heart. Love your site and the useful and interesting things you get up to. Also, thanks for your kind offer to assist where possible. Look forward to your posts.
PS - Mongo absolutely loved his visit to shinjuku (and Japan generally) last year.
regards from
Mongo
awesome, Mongo! nikkors generally get sold really quick in the junk section but once in a while you can still find some lenses for parts :o :o :o
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Rick, I wouldn't be surprised that you have already had an extensive experiences with the shops in Shinjuku area. :D
Looking forward to further interactions with you both here and in Tokyo. :)
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Rick, I wouldn't be surprised that you have already had an extensive experiences with the shops in Shinjuku area. :D
Looking forward to further interactions with you both here and in Tokyo. :)
sure! :o :o :o let's go to the shops where nobody usually goes
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Welcome Richard, looking forward to seeing more from you. Your site looks very rich in info!
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Welcome Richard, looking forward to seeing more from you. Your site looks very rich in info!
Thank you, Olivier! I am going to post another teardown tonight.
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Welcome to NikonGear - I am convinced you will find many a person here which shares your interest - even if only by reading about it.
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Welcome to NikonGear - I am convinced you will find many a person here which shares your interest - even if only by reading about it.
Thank you Elsa! i already feel at home. :o :o :o
lots of quality posts and information here as compared to other places. you are sure to get the right answer or any useful opinions here.
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Hi Richard
Your website is spot on and very timely for me. I have a small amount of spores on a 85mm lens.
I damaged a few screw heads in the past on the rear collar when fitting a CPU to a 300mm.
My chosen method to free the screws now, is to apply a little heat, in a controlled manner with the aid of a soldering iron. I have a 8W USB that cost a few dollars from a Hong Kong Supplier.
Hope this may be of use to your hobby.
John
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Hi Rick,
I've only been here a few hours and already I've experienced envy ... how do I move those
junk nikkors in the junk section of the camera shops
to near me so I can casually stroll by pick up a 75-150 ???? ;D ;D
On the more serious note, I found your blog through here (2nd benefit from NG) and love it, the topics, the level of details, ...
Please don't change and here's to hoping you find more gems so we can learn from your experience.
Have a nice day Rick. :)