My first film camera was a Canonet QL17 GIII that I bought for $10 at a thrift store sometime towards the end of high school [1]. The shutter was stuck so I sta

My first film camera was a Canonet QL17 GIII that I bought for $10 at a thrift store sometime towards the end of high school [1]. The shutter was stuck so I stayed up until way past 4am tearing it apart and fixing it, thanks to the available teardown guides online. I was able to put quite a few rolls through it before it stopped working again and I didn't have time as a college student to repair it. Since then I've gotten more serious about film, picking up a Leica M2 and learning home development and building my own scanning rigs. The Leica Ms, at least the all-mechanical film-based ones [2], really deserve all the praise they receive. The serial number on mine dates back to the late 1950's, and it will, hopefully, with proper maintenance and regular usage, outlive me. I love my digital Fujifilm gear but am under no illusion that they will be usable in ~10 years time. I once struck up a conversation with an older photographer using a film Leica. He said that he's optimistic about the future of film considering its resurging popularity among younger people, but is concerned that no one is picking up the repair trade, leaving maintenance in the hands of the mother companies who have already began discontinuing repairs for some of their models [3]. Here's to hoping mechanical repair receives the same renaissance as film photography and vinyl records. [1] Dubbed "the poor man's Leica," now fetching ~$100 on eBay. [2] From the screw mount models up until the M7, which gets hamstrung without a battery to operate the shutter. [3] Admittedly, their digital models, but it would be best to avoid a monopoly in the hands of a company already known for their boutique pricing.