Richard Haw's Classic Nikon Repair and Review

Hello, everybody! I’m going to introduce to you what we consider to be the gods of Nikon repair here in Japan and that is Kiitos. Kiitos is a camera repair workshop ran by former Nikon employees and they specialize in everything that is not digital. Digital cameras are best sent to Nikon for repairs because they have the parts for those and Kiitos also does not want to compete with Nikon on this field. Kiitos has such a good reputation that even Nikon itself will refer you to them if you have any manual equipment to repair. I had the pleasure of visiting them last weekend and I will show you around their workshop!

Here’s a demo by a Kiitos repairer during Nikon’s 100th Anniversary Road Show. See how she teared-down a Nikon F apart and put it back together in 45 minutes! She is a real pro and I am a pathetic amateur compared to her! I hope that they take me as an apprentice!

Kiitos’ address is 〒140-0015 Tōkyō-to, Shinagawa-ku, Nishiōi, 1 Chome−8−1 and you can reach it with the Yokosuka line or Shonan-Shinjuku line (JR Nishi-Oi station). It is a short walk from the station but it can be hard to spot if you’re not familiar with the area. Only drop by there when you want to have something fixed. They are busy and it’s not a good idea to just drop by and “say hi” or have a look-see. People are busy fixing Nikons here!

Here’s the entrance to Kiitos’ workshop. It’s a small shop packed with repairers and parts for servicing. It’s in a unassuming part of town and you can easily miss it.

Here’s the company’s rather simple sign and it reads “Nikon repair workshop Kiitos“.

It’s a Saturday so it’s not busy and there are only a few people working here at this time. They are open on Saturdays up until 2 o’clock in the afternoon. The workshop has about 8 people working on-site. It can be very tight here but this is quite normal in Japan.

Here’s a closer view of their equipment. I would have loved to take pictures of their tools and machines but being a repairman myself, I don’t want to bother and annoy that busy gentleman working at the shop. That white toaster-looking thing to the right is a shutter tester and it’s used for checking your camera’s shutter speeds’ accuracy.

Here’s another view. You see the grey cylinders? Those are collimators and you use them for calibrating your lens and cameras for infinity focusing. The brown box at the corner with “Dusper” printed on it contains Dusper-brand tissues. I used them myself and they are cheap. Many camera repairmen use them for cleaning cameras because they are not expensive and they’re lint-free. They won’t harm the coatings of your lens,too.

Here are some parcels containing gear from customers. They have a 30-day turnaround time. If you have 6-7 repairmen and it takes this long then it means that business is very good! They don’t charge a lot to be honest and an overhaul of a Nikon F costs about $170.

They have this at the reception area which is very interesting to look at for camera geeks.

(Click to enlarge)

Here are some pictures of the display. I am thinking of doing something like this but it is a very time-consuming thing to do and I don’t have the time and space for this now.

In case you think that I am pulling your leg, our reader (Dirk S.) has this to say:

“Kiitos is an amazing shop with very gifted repair people. Earlier this year, I received a vintage Nikon SP with a Nikkor-N 5cm f1.1 kit that was completely rebuilt by Kiitos. It being the most amazing piece of kit is an understatement. This Nikon SP is the smoothest and most precise feeling camera I have ever handled (and before I have gotten by the Nikon RF bug, I used all kinds of Leica cameras people would swoon over). Whenever there is an issue with manual Nikon camera gear I am not able to take care of myself, I would be honored, having it looked after by Kiitos.I highly recommend their work.”

This is just one example of how Kiitos makes their living. There are many more stories in the internet about Kiitos’ work in Japanese so just search for them.

I hope that you enjoyed this feature on Kiitos and if you liked this then maybe I can make more of this next time. You can reach them by their website or just call (81) 03-5718-4600 and speak to them directly. Look for Mr. Motohashi as he speaks some English. Ask for a quote and then send your items to them. I’m not sure if they accept overseas orders but it won’t hurt to try. Thank you very much for patronizing my blog and if you like this post then please share it with your friends at social media. See you again next time! Ric.

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Maintaining this blog requires money to operate. If you think that this site has helped you or you want to show your support by helping with the upkeep of this site, you can simple make a small donation to my paypal.com account (richardHaw888@gmail.com). Money is not my prime motivation for this blog and I believe that I have enough to run this but you can help me make this site (and the companion facebook page) grow.

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