Hi, In the world of photography your camera is called B.E.R. or beyond economical repair. The repair costs are more than the body is actually worth. HOWEVER!! I understand completely. I too had the A-1 series cameras. I also got attached to the three I owned including the one my Dad bought me for graduation. But once I sold my first personal camera I no longer developed the love for equipment I once had <sad>. I just sold a 1n and a D-30 to buy gear. What you may want to do is take a hard look at the EOS system. You can pick up a good condition A2 for around $350 and get a few AF lenses to start. You will be shifting systems and non of your old lenses will work on the AF camera bodies. However the A2 is one of the best built cameras made by Canon. I have one that is over 10 years old and has had over 100,000 frames shot through it!! and it still works perfect. The repair folks at horizon-electronics have maintained my gear and even they are suprised by this. I did have to have the knob on top of the body repaired but so have several thousand others.. Les > I'm in Houston, TX. Went to one repair shop where they told me Canon A-1 > parts are so hard to come by that it'd be pretty much hopeless to get it > fixed. I ended up getting an old A-1 body through Ebay to serve as a source > of parts.... > > The problem is the spool with the small tabs used to align the film during > loading. Not the one you slip the end of the film into, but the one before > it - you place the alignment notches on the film onto it. A small piece of > it broke off, right by the set screw (just to the right of the screw). As a > result the film won't rewind. My husband and I tried to disassemble the old > eBay body first, in an attempt to retrieve this spool. We have the repair > manual, but it's still somewhat difficult to undo. This is where we're > stuck. I don't know how much would a repair shop charge if I show up with > both bodies, where there'd be the labor to take it out of the first body, > plus the labor to install it in mine. Maybe I might as well get another one! > > Anybody had to do this before with a Canon A-1? I'm sentimentally attached > to that camera - I can't let go! (silly me). If worse come to worse I might > go back to eBay and get another body, this one in working condition! > > Marivonne > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* > http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail >
