The forth UK F2 workshop was held on Friday and Saturday 6 - 7 May 2022, again at my local church. Six people attended - from the UK (4), Spain and Germany, one was a repeat attendee. Also there was an additional part time UK trainee.
Day 1 was shutter and meter testing, body disassembly, and old foams removal. Everyone used the same booklet I made for the September 2019 workshop, describing the tools, and showing all the lubrication points.
Day 2 was lubrication, battery chamber repair, shutter calibration, re-assembly and refoam.
We were not able to complete everything by 6pm, so we went out for a meal at a local Chinese restaurant, and returned to the workshop at 8pm. We finished at 11.30pm, and I didn't return home until midnight. The problems were :
- I added extra course materials to explain the shutter operation, using a paper demonstrator and a four channel oscilloscope.
- Removal of old foams and cleaning took too long to meet my standards, so lubrication was pushed to the second day.
- There were problematic cameras that needed my attention, so I became the bottleneck.
- The 32 page booklet I made were not comprehensive enough, although it worked well on the last workshop.
Feedbacks from the participants :
‘Although I encountered some problems my overall impression is overwhelmingly positive.’
‘Overall my trip was a blast, I met passionate people and I now have a brand new camera.‘
‘I am for certain very interested in the two days follow-up course that you suggest, one day for shutter speeds calibration and refoam and one day for DP-1/11 and DP-3/12 finder services.’
‘The shutter calibration part was impacted by misinformation at one point where different people were looking at different numbers to calibrate. This was solve as soon as you were available again. How to read the machine could be a good addition to the booklet.’
'Some of your demos were a bit too long for me to take everything in and then I’d have to pause until you were free to ask for guidance. This slowed me down.'
I have taken all the above and other comments on board, and made corrective changes. The next workshop should be a lot better.
