Insider Info

Crystal Nadeau puts the lens cap back on a 35-mm camera. She slides open the glass display case in front of her and gently lowers the camera into place. As she locks the cabinet, the doorbell rings and a customer walks into the shop.

The customer strides over to the desk. "I'm looking for a new flash," he says, dropping his camera in front of her. She examines his camera and then rushes off to find a few models for him to look at. "Are you looking for a fully automatic or a manual? What type of flash do you need?" she asks.

The customer scratches his head. "Well, I'm not too sure about that," he says. "You see, I had a flash on this camera, but it just shut down one day and I can't get it to do anything anymore. Thought it was time for a new one."

"One of our repair technicians might be able to look at it," suggests Nadeau. The customer thinks the flash is beyond repair, but shows it to her anyway.

Nadeau examines it. She's pretty certain it can be fixed. It looks like the flash test button is jammed. "If you like, I can see if our repair technicians think it can be fixed," she says.

The camera repair technician comes from the back shop and turns the flash over in his hand. "The test button is jammed and running down your battery," he says. "That's no problem to fix."

Nadeau writes up the order form and the customer leaves his flash at the shop to be repaired. Nadeau had diagnosed the camera's problem perfectly.

After all, she has to know how a wide variety of cameras work if she wants to sell them. However, after a few years behind the sales desk, she wanted to learn more about camera repair.

"I knew there must be more than this," says Nadeau, who works in New Hampshire. "Camera repair was just the next logical step from retail."

With her knowledge of cameras, Nadeau was hired on as a camera repair trainee without having to take any courses. "You can learn through correspondence courses or home study, or if you're lucky you can learn on the job," she says. "That's how I managed to get started in repair."

It didn't take long for Nadeau to become an expert at using the wide variety of tools in the back shop. "It's basically something you can do or you can't do," she says. "You have to be able to work in small spaces and be able to handle a screwdriver comfortably."

Over the years, camera repair has become less a matter of fixing mechanical problems and more a matter of fixing electronics. "The newer style camera electronics can be challenging to learn," says Nadeau.

Because new types of electronic and camera equipment are constantly appearing on the market, repair personnel have to keep learning about new parts. "That's what's so great about this job. You never stop learning," Nadeau says.

Dave Orrell, a camera repair technician, agrees. "Learning about the new electronic components is fascinating." He's amazed companies can keep producing smaller, yet better functioning cameras. "The technology is definitely impressive," he says.

Orrell remembers bulky, heavy cameras that couldn't provide half the functions of new cameras that now fit in the palm of your hand. "It's always mind-boggling how they can pack the electronics into such a small package."

Even though cameras have become more developed, people keep breaking them at the same rate. It doesn't matter how small or well-designed a camera looks, it's still easy to drop it on the pavement or in the water -- or get frustrated and jam a button.

"We replace defective parts that have all kinds of things wrong with them," says Orrell. "The problems can range from moisture affecting function to sand in the camera."

In the back shop, Orrell opens up a camera and replaces any broken parts. At one time this would have been the end of his repairs, but not any longer.

Once Orrell puts in a new part, he then uses a computer to reprogram the camera's electronics. "Now we have to learn to adjust the camera's function with software," he says.

"You have to be the kind of person who is curious to do this job," says Nadeau. "It's not really a question of a particular type of camera I enjoy or hate fixing. You have to like working at them all, and getting them repaired."