Suppliers and brands for camera spare parts, repairs, maintenance and more

[AnalogueWendy]

Maintaining and restoring my cameras has sent me off on many internet adventures looking for all the unusual fittings, and other bits I need.
Thought this would be a good place to collect some of my favourites, in no particular order. These are not photographic suppliers - they are sources for all the 'other' stuff. They are often smaller companies and the ones I use are mostly UK-based.

https://www.westfieldfasteners.co.uk/ stock many, many fittings, including the smallest brass screws I have found. Outstanding service and website that seems to get better every time I use it.

 

[John]

I will give a shout to "Burley Cameras". Ross has just cut a copal 3 hole into a John Nesbitt board to mount my Nikkor 240mm into. Fantastic job done and worth a look at what he can offer.

BURLEY CAMERAS - Accessories for Film and Plate Photography

Burley Cameras features an exciting product lineup for film and plate photography. Products include custom wooden lens caps for your vintage lenses, custom wooden handles for your Pentax 6x7 67 and 67II grips and film holder cases for your 5x4" holders. Browse through the Burley Cameras product

www.burleycameras.com

 

[Jonathan Hotopf]

I can vouch for Burley Cameras, a got a custom No 1 lens board for a Szabad 5x7 from him.

 

[alexander]

Does anyone happen to know of a good source for springs? I've been looking for a replacement for a Micro Technical Mk VII viewing hood but had not success... A helpful chap on one of the Facebook groups supplied me with some but unfortunately seem to be for a different model.

 

[Petrochemist]

Thanks Wendy
I've found other fastener suppliers similar to westfield in the past (mainly when searching for US threaded components for work). It's always useful to have such suppliers bookmarked, even if it's just for the technical info on threads they might have

One I have saved in my photography favourites is https://www.cutplasticsheeting.co.u...ls-midnight-black-acrylic-sheet-matte-finish/ for plastic sheeting when making lensboards...

Then there's https://www.uqgoptics.com/catalogue/filters/ for specialist optical glass for unusual filters or lens elements when playing with DIY lenses. (Possibly not useful for most LF photographers).

Local craft shops are always worth a browse too for photographic DIY projects, even if this is only to keep me sane while my wife is getting carried away.

In a slightly different way this collection of repair resources might be useful https://learncamerarepair.com/resources.php#general-tutorials.

 

[Petrochemist]

A couple more I remembered while getting lunch, that I've used more than once (for a wide selection of obscure things):

Manchester University Teaching Resources now rebranded as mindsets https://mindsetsonline.co.uk/
Greenweld https://www.greenweld.co.uk/acatalog/
Surplus shed is based in the states but has still been worth using on occasion https://www.surplusshed.com/

 

[Petrochemist]

And now a few relevant links from the computer at home (I've not used them but they all look interesting for unusual stuff)

https://www.prime-miniatures.co.uk/catalog/threaded-rod also do tiny nut/bolts etc
https://www.micro-tools.com/

https://www.fastenersclearinghouse.com/fch/main.nsf/fHome I think a US version of Wendy's initial supplier
https://www.hswalsh.com/jewellery-tools-equipment

 

[AnalogueWendy]

Important to add @Ian Grant here too, for all your ground glass needs.

 

[David Lindquist]

Located in Portugal, this provides products/services similar to SK Grimes in the US: https://customphototools.com/
I haven't used him, well I am in the US. I've seen good opinions on some of the photography fora.
David

 

[thronobulax]

I have a number of such resources here in the US, but I suspect they would be impractical from the UK or EU nations. If anyone wants them anyway, speak up.

 

[Ian Grant]

Important to add @Ian Grant here too, for all your ground glass needs.

Thanks Wendy. Ive been making over a hundred plus screens a year since around 2007, not just for LF cameras. I make bespoke screens for TLR cameras and smaller.

I also do restorations for museums, cameras, shutters, etc.

Ian