Shopping: Camtec Photo Leica Boutique

17 Apr 2025 1 Comment

by richardhaw in nikon,lens repair,lens maintenance,nikon repair,, Nikon,museum,classic lenses,, Uncategorized Tags: , , , ,

Hello, everybody! This city cannot compare to Tokyo when it comes to shopping for cameras. It does not have the specialty boutiques that Tokyo has such as Kitamura Camera nor the used and junk paradise that is Fujiya Camera. However, it does have its own specialty places that cater to a certain type of market. You can say that it’s the equivalent of Mapcamera’s Leica Boutique in Shinjuku, but not quite there. Whatever it lacks in scale it makes up for the personal service that I’m used to in Japan, where the staff knows me by name and preference. This is the place to be in this side of the city.

Introduction:

Camtec Photo has been in operation for some time now and it is considered to be one of the best places to buy cameras in Montreal. They have two shops that are about a kilometer apart, we will talk about the one that’s more interesting because the smaller (original) one doesn’t have the same character compared to this shop.

This is the storefront which you can’t miss because of the sign and large windows. It looks small from the outside but it’s actually much bigger inside. I mostly use this shop for my processing and digitizing needs because they are fast and they won’t throw away your film if you have forgotten to pick it up. Other shops will throw them out if it didn’t pick it up after a few weeks.

More

Repair: Nicca Type-5 (Part 1)

07 Jun 2024 Leave a comment

by richardhaw in nikon,lens repair,lens maintenance,nikon repair,, Nikon,museum,classic lenses,, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

Hello, everybody! Do you all remember “Boney M“? Boney M was Germany’s super group during the Disco days, responsible for some of the unforgettable hits such as Rasputin, Daddy Cool and several more that topped the charts from the mid 1970s up until the mid 1980s. It is one of my favorite groups and I would listen to their songs while driving just to keep me awake. What a lot of people didn’t know is that the four members of the group didn’t really sing the songs, at least Bob Farrell – who was the front-man never did. That’s why many considered it a fake group. Today, I’ll show you what some people would call a “fake”, a copycat. But just like Boney M, despite not being the real deal it did really well for itself because it tried to outdo the original, other people would even go as far as say that it’s even better. Read the whole story to find out why I said this and you decide if it is indeed worthy of its reputation.

Introduction:

The Nicca Type-5 was sold from 1955, it succeeded the older Nicca IIIS. What sets it apart from the older camera is this one copied the Leica IIIc instead of the earlier Leica IIIa. It has a maximum shutter speed of 1/1000s instead of the pedestrian 1/500s that many older Leica copies have. But its most defining feature is the rear door that you can open for more convenient loading of film. It also allows you to remove stuck or ripped pieces of film easily, you will need to send your camera for repairs prior to this feature because the lower shell had to be removed in order to get any debris off. This also allows me to conveniently test the focus of any lenses that I have serviced since all I need to do is just look through the film aperture. It’s also much more trivial to adjust the tension of the curtains because I don’t need to remove the lower shell in order to attach a sensor to the camera.

Nicca makes some of the better Japanese Barnack clones, the build is much better compared to the ones from other companies, rivaling even Canon’s. They are inexpensive, you can get one for well under $100, I got mine for $50 or so, it’s not in good shape at all but that’s how they usually look like.

More