Tweet
I know this is hard to believe, but there is no industry standard or specification of any kind that sets out what a CLA is supposed to be or consist of. The acronym "CLA" means, clean lubricate and adjust, but it is more of a question than an answer. The question is clean what and how, lubricate with what and how, and adjust what? The answers will vary from shop to shop and from person to person and to sum it all up from my experience CLA means "as little work as possible" for as much money as possible.
As always, many of the topics discussed on the Camerosity Podcast are not planned, and this time we go pretty deep into the world of repairing cameras, and how dire things have become with the number of skilled technicians who are either retiring or dying, leaving no one else to take their place. Cheyenne makes a very plausible, yet very sad prediction that in 10 years, there will be no one left alive who can CLA a Contax rangefinder.
Yes, we have new talent like Jess Ibarra to share her thoughts on learning camera repair, but there's only so many cameras one person can master, so if you have a camera you'd like to one day get repaired, NOW is the time!
Yes, we have new talent like Jess Ibarra to share her thoughts on learning camera repair, but there's only so many cameras one person can master, so if you have a camera you'd like to one day get repaired, NOW is the time!