Slightly OT: Pentax spot meter repair??

[mrmatta]

I've recently picked up an old Pentax/Honeywell ANALOG 1degree spot meter and it is all I will ever need for my S8/R8/16mm adventures. The high scale wasn't working and I assumed it was just a dead mercury cell (there are two batteries, 9v for low scale and an obsolete mercury cell for high scale). I tested the mercury cell and it is full strength and I got a few NOS replacements, but in the process of dicking around with the meter, I broke the terminal that would make connection for the high scale (it was old and brittle). I sent it off to my authorized Pentax service center (CRJ in Georgia - Southeast US) and it was uncerimoniously returned to me without so much as a phone call. The service order read "not repaired - parts not available" or something to that effect. It seems like a ridiculously simple fix for an old-school fixit man. There is a battery compartment. There is a wire that needs to get power from said battery compartment. If the original part isn't available, a simple pice of wire and some solder would probably do the trick.


Does anyone out there know a crusty old repairman that would take on a job like this. I know dozens in the pro audio field, but I am a relative newcomer to the world of visuals.


Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

[monobath]

I don't know for sure that they do the kind of repair you need, but you might call Quality Light Metric and ask them.

Quality Light Metric Co
7095 Hollywood Blvd # 550,
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Phone: (323) 467-2265

Richard Ritter might be a better bet, come to think of it. His web site is Richard Ritter Large Format

Richard Ritter is a large format photographer and a highly regarded repairman who was an associate of Fred Picker and helped to form the Zone VI company that produced, among other things, the modified Pentax spot meter that is so highly regarded by practitioners of the zone system of exposure.