Authorized Camera Repair

I don’t usually write reviews, but in this case I must. It’s for the people.
I purchased a vintage Contax Zeiss lens from Japan on eBay. When it arrived, it was not behaving as I expected (intermittent zoom and focus issues), and while I worked out a possible return, I decided to have it checked by a professional who could perhaps diagnose the issue. I happened to be in the area so I stopped by this place.
Big. Waste. Of time.
The owner steps out from the backroom, smile on his face, asking what he can do for me. I begin to explain my story and the symptoms of the lens, and he interrupts me, «Is your camera film?» I respond no, it’s a digital camera; I use an adapter to mount the Contax lenses. Then he shrugs his shoulders a bit and says, «Well, there you go!» as if that explains everything.
Not sure what he’s getting at, I continue with my concerns about the lens, hoping that he will have a look at it… Nope. According to him, the lens was designed for film cameras, and it won’t work on digital cameras. He repeated this mantra for 3 min. until I finally walked away.
The owner of this shop is ignorant and (who knows how often) has no idea what he’s talking about. I wouldn’t trust him with my gear in a million years.
Lenses don’t know the difference between film and digital. People adapt vintage lenses to digital bodies every. day. The technology of digital sensors is very much like film, and if the dimensions of the sensor match the lens’ image circle, everything should work fine.
I did some more tinkering with my lens. Turned out there was some massive damage to the internals of the lens – loose elements and such. If Authorized Camera Repair were competent, they would have checked the lens and quickly come to the same conclusion.
Too bad they are incompetent.

Highly recommend this place! Tom is super nice, helpful, and knowledgeable. Got my vintage Canon AE1 in great shape and explained how to use it and take care of it. When I had a simple battery problem, he could’ve been greedy and charged a lot but was instead honest and showed me how to look after the issue in the future.

I got my Hasselblad lens «repaired» here. I was quoted ~$ 300 for a shutter service, which has to be paid in cash. The first time I picked up my lenes I nocied a shinny new shutter blade inside. After about 10 shots the shutter blade started crashing into each other and all blades were damaged. I took it back, Tom sent it back to the tech, they don’t do service on site. I went to pick it up again, this time I inspected it carefuly. The shinny shutter blade was replace, but they left all the other damage shutter blades in place. Send it back I said. So now I have good shutter blades, but the shutter/​apeture dial is very loose and not usable. I know cameras, I fix some of my own gear when I have time. I will never go to this place again. Tom did try to make things right, but it never fixed right. This is one of those cases for Zero Stars.

I’d like to start off saying that the repair shop is not on site and its cash only. The shop is at a seperate location so if you decide not to get your gear repaired you’d have to wait a few days before u can get it back. I thought that detail was important enough to be mentioned first.
Anyway, I brought 2 flashes over for repair on Friday (11 – 13). Tom was about to close shop but he was nice enough to wait for me to bring my gear in. Tom is very pleasant, very chatty. Paid $ 10 cash for each flash to get his tech to look at it. Great start, was definitely seeing where his high ratings were coming from. He asked me to call him wednesday the following week (11 – 16).
Called wednesday, gave him my ticket number and he said hey, one flash is repairable — $ 84 — and he’ll have his guy take the parts out of the 2^nd flash to get it to work. I say thats fine, kindly have his guy put the 2^nd flash together so i wont have a bag of flash «parts». I was thinking maybe i can bring the 2^nd flash somewhere else and get them to repair it and i dont think anyone will want to repair a «bag of flash parts». He said it would be double labor, if his guy had to put it back together. In my head im going. $ 84+$ 20=$ 104 and ill end up with one working flash and a «bag of flash parts».
I decide to just not get them repaired there so i ask him to just have his guy put the flashes back the way they were, and ill get them repaired elsewhere. He’s like ok, but i wont get the flashes back until Friday (11 – 18). fine. A few minutes later he calls saying hey… I talked to the guy and he says he’ll try to put it back together. At this point im already a bit agitated but I give him credit for going the extra mile. I give him the go ahead to just fix the flash and get it over with. He tells me to call Tuesday (11 – 22) At this point i hop online, buy an SB-​600 off craigslist for $ 150bucks, and get my instant gratification.
So. $ 104 for a repaired flash using parts from my 2^nd flash and over 2 weeks of waiting… or $ 150 of instant gratification ($ 200-​$ 250 for a brand new one that you get in 3 – 5 business days). You be the judge.
He certainly gets points for being a good businessman, just isn’t practical for my particular situation. I’d love to give him a high mark but im just not happy with the all in all experience. Of course, this may be a totally different story if he was repairing a $ 5000 camera body for a few hundred bucks.
UPDATE: March 03, 2012
So the repaired flash stopped working again with the exact same symptoms. Turns out that the fix was a $ 7 Flash tube replacement from Nikon and about 30mins-​1 hour of soldering. His tech who took the flash apart previously also did a bang-​up job of putting it back together. he actually melted some mounts trying to get to one end of the flash tube and the rubber bands holding the tube and the wires werent properly guided back cleanly. The tech also apparently «didnt have enough time» to put the 2^nd flash together so i found loose parts and screws in it when I took it apart to move the flash tube

I truly messed up my GF-​1 and was heart broken. I could not be more grateful that I stumbled upon this gem. The owner went above and beyond to repaid my camera very quickly and for the most reasonable amazing price. It works better than it did before. I go to Samy’s often for everything that I can, but from now on I will use this shop in every possibly way. The cameras are repaired in house, which now a days seems to be a rare but wonderful feat. It is truly great to speak to the person working on your camera who is knowledgeable, reasonable, and actually understanding. A+ for service, repair, price, and every other thing I can rate them for.
If you want your camera fixed or advice on your camera and want the best possibly service for a truly great price, don’t waste your time else where.
THANK you to camera repair!

My Canon 100 mm USM Macro lens was dropped and the aperture got sticky. Sometimes it would close as required just before the exposure but mostly it wouldn’t. I sent it to Canon to get an estimate for the repair, paid around $ 60 just for that, and was told eventually the repair would cost $ 350 plus. The total, therefore, would have ended somewhere about half a thousand dollars, pretty close to what you would have to pay for a brand new grey market lens. So I took my lens back and put it on the shelf for the future and in the meantime used my other lens, Tamron 90 mm macro. That was a year ago. This time around, I felt the future has arrived when my Tamron made a screeching sound at an extreme close-​up and the camera informed me it has lost communication with lens. That looked like a serious warning of things to expect. It made me to get my Canon 100 mm from the shelf and contact Canon once again. Canon, however expressed its regret and told me they don’t repair this particular lens anymore. Pretty bad. I googled camera repair shops in Los Angeles and stumbled on the Authorized Camera Repair in Koreatown. When I drove there the shop looked more like a photo studio than a camera repair shop but when the owner told me it would cost only $ 10 for the estimate I thought what a heck. I called the shop a few days later and was told the lens is repairable just that they need to purchase a new electronic mechanism to replace the broken one inside the lens. The price would be $ 169. As I hesitated for a split second what would the repair cost on top of the new mechanism, the man said «Total.» And that includes the ten bucks for the estimate. That’s it guys and girls! Three days later, i.e. yesterday, I got my fixed lens. I just tried it out this morning and it works like charm. Thanks Authorized Camera Repair! Recommended.

After getting some crazy high quotes from Steve’s and samy’s found this little gem. The man is a true expert and my canon 50 mm 1.4 is better then ever, he replaced the motor and did some other work, got it back in a week and only charged me 100 dollars. Great way to support small local shops, and the owner is the only one there so no run around he said she said stuff. He is very honest and fair. Will never go anywhere else again

This is the first report on Authorized Camera Repair (ACR) so it should be written without prejudice or malice. Let me start by setting the background: After going to Simon’s Camera and being told that my fairly new SLR needed to be shipped back to the manufacturer for repair I started looking at other shops because this didn’t sound correct. I called ACR and was given a chatty direct explanation of how the system works: Most Camera shops do not do their own repairs — they send them out and mark up their vendor’s work. According to the gentlemen at the counter many local stores send cameras to him. So I went to Simon’s, got my camera, took it ACR and paid the $ 10 fee to take a look. Side note: Simon’s had tried to charge me $ 20 just for shipping!
After having the camera for only 2 days i called the shop and was told after running extensive tests there was nothing wrong with my camera (works perfect) no extra charge would be assessed — I can only imagine had Simon’s serviced my camera it would have been «a major part» at 100 bucks + labor.
This store is honest and knows its stuff. Go there if your camera is broken.
Having said that (Curb your Enthusiasm reference), the gentlemen working there needs some serious customer service training. It’s probably his establishment and he has been tucked away there for years but he is quick tempered and forceful with his verbal transactions often cutting the customer off and speaking to them in an unknowingly condescending way.
Which, I guess, sometimes is all find and dandy if you just want it done right.
ACR is recommended, bring your thick skin.
JG