Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Quality is the most important thing...

I like to do things in quality.
There always people writes me about the conversion cost, that brings me an idea, why not I sell DIY kit to buyers, and then let them do all the conversion, saves my time, and their money!
But recently when I did my conversion batch, the idea vanished.
The reason, conversion steps need experiences, and skills accumulated by try and errors.
If DIY kit did not provide enough parts for new hands to do things right, what then? buy another spare parts? bear the not-so-good quality for the rest of camera life?
For example, paste the velvet on the back.
You can see that there are total 12 screw holes around frame opening, that is for fixing the bellows, we will paste three stripe of velvet, to cover the holes, and to as light trap. (fixing the bellows needs another skill)
As you can see that two of them have been pasted, the last one is going to paste on.
Finished.
But I say it is unqualified on Byron.
I will re-paste the middle velvet, as you can see there is one tiny gap at under side. To a new hand, pasting velvet is not easy at all. I reckon myself a handy man, but I practice this paste step for about 40 times, then I eventually know how to do it right, so how many should I prepare in DIY kit?
Or will you tolerate imperfection, try to ignore it every time you load/unload the film holder, since it did not affect the operation?
But what if some parts do affect the quality of operation, and you got only one chance to make it right? what about bellows?
What about the RF housing? It took me about 13 main steps to modify.
Such as shown here, from left to right are housing for 110A, 110B, and modified 110B for Byron, I added a eyecap attachment at the eye window,
And at the right lower part of housing, some putty is needed to fill, an opening left for clamps..., a lot of sanding and then putting again.....

Then at the end of housing, a dented corner, for accommodating PA-45 holder, then thanks to Walter, I add a bubble level hole.
All these finished, two to three layers of spray paint is needed, before that, maybe a base paint is needed, and even finer sanding......
Do these job suitable for DIY? maybe yes for skillful hand, but for new hands....
I am afraid that the quality of Byron is no way to maintain if DIY kit released......
And, to all my dearest clients, if you are waiting for your lovely Byron home, please forgive me if there is a little schedule behind, that always be some steps I feel not good enough, and take days re-made or re-adjust, I can't let them out in such an unqualified condition, maybe you are not aware, but I am.

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