What's up with CinemaTechnic, Inc ?

[Damien Molineaux]

Well, it says in the title of this thread "Have a problem? Need to get something off your chest? post here." so here goes. This does not concern Red, but M. Jorge Diaz-Amador of CinemaTechnic, Inc.

I sent him an Angenieux 25-250mm zoom over a year ago, probably 18 months ago by now, to have it converted to PL mount. I initially told him I was in no hurry as I was waiting for my Red. We exchanged numerous e-mails over the following months. Until this one on May 9th :

***
Private correspondence deleted by moderator.
***

Since then, no news.

Cheers,
Damien

[jimhare]

That's certainly disappointing. Have you phoned him as well as email? Sometimes a verbal push does the trick.

Best of luck.

[Tony Lorentzen]

Request that he immediately return the lens directly to you or another company. While I think it's a bit inappropriate to post full e-mails written in privacy - stories like these can help others decide whether they want to do business with Jorge or not.

[Costelloe Michael]

Hey Earthling,

I've waited some time myself for 'low rent' repairs from 'respectable' lense outfits and eventually phoned up the company doing the repair, explained that this is outside of my expectations even for low cost repairs and had my stuff sent elsewhere.

There's a guy in the UK called Les Bosher who is very amenable and will give you a fair price and good indication of cost and time needed for the repair/conversion. He's done several lense sets for me and I can recommend his work and his service. He can do PL mount conversion, Focus and Zoom rings and Lense Suppports for your Angenieux. With the weakness of the pound you can probably get a good deal also!

PM me if you want his contact details.

Mike C

[James T Mather]

I recommend Duclos Lenses - Conversion to PL mount and cleaning, optically realigning a 12mm and 150mm Anamorphic - three day turnaround.

They were great.

[Florian Stadler]

Duclos is the way to go. Nice, knowledgeable, they will need a little lead time because they are busy.

[Jorge Díaz-Amador]

I figured it would eventually come to this. Since RED made a better mousetrap, my camera repair business has plummeted more than 90%. In the last 12 months I have serviced two 16SR's. I used to do about one major repair or camera conversion an month.

I always thought lens repair would make up the difference. But lenses just don't "break" as often. Also, I used to purchase and refurbish Zeiss Super Speed lenses (16 and 35) for resale. I'd make my money, not by marking up the lenses, but by adding the price of the reconditioning to what I paid. Now it is impossible to buy used lenses for reasonable prices.

With the greatly increased costs of doing business (that whole thing about "inflation is under control" is just another government lie), things have gotten *really* difficult. Try staying in business with high expenses on 10% of the revenue you used to get. After spending several thousand dollars investing in ARRI tools to repair the 16SR's. Money that is tied up in a greatly devalued investment.

Regarding your lens Damien, please keep one thing in mind: I wasn't expecting to receive it when you sent it. I had suggested in an e-mail that I could take a look at it, after being completely perplexed by the strange appearance of the rear housing in the photos.

I never recieve shipments of camera equipment at my P.O. Box, only checks and other correspondence. One day I'm there checking mail and I get a slip to pick up a package. It turns out to be your lens. I had no idea you were going to send it. You just took the P.O. Box address from my website and sent it to me.

At the time you sent your lens in, I was still in this nightmare that is the remodeling/construction of the house I purchased to expand my business. A task that is still not complete. A huge investment that has devalued at least 20%.

Moving my workshop alone took several months. Improvements on the property have come to a standstill due to insufficient cash flow. My metalworking machines are disassembled and crated, because the area where they were meant to be set up (the garage) is still not ready.

As for your lens, it turned out it was so old that I couldn't adapt it to the Angenieux universal mount. I had to hunt down some old parts to make it work. I spend many hours on the phone and in e-mail that I can't charge you for. I didn't want to ask for any money until I was sure I had something that would work.

In the meantime, bills keep coming in and I've got to work on jobs that will pay quickly in order to keep the doors open and a roof over the shop.

My customers have always been independent owner-operators, like I used to be (I owned a 16SR for 10 years). They always told me they appreciated that I was willing to work on their old equipment, and not over-charge them or refuse to work on old equipment, the way the manufacturers did. I knew what it was like to get force to pay through the nose for equipment and repairs when producers were knocking down your day rates and rental rates and then taking months to pay.

But this new mentality of expecting everything to be quick and cheap, despite the unusual or obscure nature of the work, is making this business model an obsolete one. It seems to me that the days of the small independent camera workshop are over.

I will contact you directly to make arrangements regarding your lens.

[Joe Gill]

Your lens didn't have the screw off universal mount? They were very common on the 240s. With that, you can just whip off the Bayonet and put on the PL...

[Jorge Díaz-Amador]

Your lens didn't have the screw off universal mount? They were very common on the 240s. With that, you can just whip off the Bayonet and put on the PL...

If it was that easy I would have taken care of it a *long* time ago. The lens we are talking about here is a very old lens.

BTW, I want to take exception to the posting of a private e-mail (including phone number) between myself and my customer. I have noticed that I would always get these lengthy confidentiality statements at the end of e-mail I get from many companies and individuals. Now I know why they are necessary and I will add them to my e-mails, starting today.

I suggest everyone here do the same. Unless you want your personal correspondence posted on a public forum and your own words used against you.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

OK,

I deleted the private email in Damien's first post. No one asked me to, but that's just bad form to post something like that publicly, complete with phone numbers, and other info.

This matter is still between Damien and Jorge. Being an outside observer, I can only speculate about the true nature of the situation, if I felt inclined to do so.

Jorge, you raise some good points in your post above. I'm sorry that your business has slowed. I unfortunately know a few people in the same situation. Saying that used lenses can't be purchased for a reasonable price is an understatement. Very frustrating, especially when there's not as much of a shortage as a lot of people would have us believe.