REPAIR SERVICES
SHOW ME WHERE IT'S BROKE
Whether analog or digital, I've been inside many a camera and lens. I've repaired almost as many - after all, there's not much other reason to find yourself with a disassembled camera on your workbench. That said, I'm not so specialized in repairs that I can broadly accept all comers. Parts are a limiting factor, as is equipment. But in many cases I can help set things straight.
SO WHAT'S THE DEAL?
If you have gear that you'd like to send in for re-finishing and it has a functional or cosmetic issue then reach out to me to discuss. If there's some physical cosmetic damage then that can typically be sorted out mid-way during refinishing. Functional issues with analog equipment may be as simple as gummed up gears or helicoids. And sometimes it can be more serious, such as broken springs that have been out of production since the '70s. I can't promise that I can fix it, but I can at least give you an assessment.
On the digital side of things, if parts are accessible then I can ususally get things up and running again. For equipment that is still repairable via the manufacturer I strongly recommend having them take care of it, unless they won't touch it (as is sometimes the case with water damage). I have a decent track record of reviving cameras that have gone for a swim (depending on the internal corrosion), and standard stuff such as swapping out a shutter is ez-pz. I even dabble in SMD repair and micro soldering, but those are very context-sensitive.
Why "La Salamandra" anyway?
As with many things that I do, I find it difficult to not work some kind of joke into the mix. The story of La Salamandra starts sometime in the summer (or was it spring?) of 2020. Ugh, I know, right? Anyway, a film-addled camera collector friend of mine started sending me instagram links to all these fancy-AF refinished film cameras. As I came to discover, there's a company in the States called Cerakote that makes a line of resilient ceramic coatings. In addition to a bunch of people stencilling rainbows and unicorns onto their surrogate penises guns, some other intrepid souls had started doing the same to cameras…
I was intrigued! I started researching how they were accomplishing this. I was already quite comfortable inside of most cameras so painting the outside was pretty trivial. But oh-hoh, it wasn't that simple! They needed to be baked, for lack of a better word. And there were acetone baths involved. And abrasive blasting. All kinds of nonsense. So in September of 2020 I decided that I would give it a go, and I bought an oven. It was on sale. And then I did nothing for about another year-ish.
As I write this it's the start of 2022. So there you go.
Oh, wait, I didn't explain the name! Ok, well:
I only use assumed names on social media (they aren't getting anything from me for free!) and one day my film-friendly friend discovered this, coming to the realization that my online identity wasn't totally congruent with my offline identity. I explained why I feel the need to deny the big sosh meeds monopolies my identity. At some point thereafter I noticed that he seemed to follow suit, changing his social media handle - to Elle Salamander! In my head I started referring to him as "El Salamander" which started to morph into "El Salamandor." Pretty cool nickname material, frankly. So I decided to look it up just to be sure I wasn't committing an oopsy goofer and… discovered that in Spanish, salamander is actually a feminine noun. Which means it's La Salamandra.
So when it came time to call this venture something I asked him if I could use the nickname, since he was the one who introduced me to this Cerakote nonsense in the first place. And thus, La Salamandra is named in his honour.
Oh, and one day I texted him a photo of nail polish that I use to colour recessed lettering and he asked "Starting a salon?" and I responded "You know it! A salon… but for cameras!"
And there you have it. La Salamandra Camera Salon.
At your service.
The irony of the placement of these social media links is not lost on me.