The course booklet was expended from the 75 pages July issue to 133 pages, and because it was so much more detailed, I didn't have to do any demonstration at my bench for the first time. Instead I asked the participants to follow the booklet by themselves, and I helped them whenever they encountered problems. This method allowed the attendees to progress at hugely different speeds, with the quickest one over 2 hours ahead of the slowest one. Also, I asked quicker ones to help slower ones, which was beneficial for them.
There were additional equipment and parts demonstrations, eg a self contained shutter bounce detection kit, and shutter speed mechanisms taken apart to show the cam stack and the 1/2000s cam. Also, an electronic microscope was used to show the split on a shutter curtain which was hard to see with the naked eye.
It was the best and fastest workshop so far, with someone starting the refoam at 2.30pm. Everybody finished by 5.30pm and they helped me to pack everything up by 6pm. Four of us went to a local Chinese restaurant at 6.30pm for the end of course meal and chats, which we greatly enjoyed.
One of the attendee brought a magnifying lamp to the workshop, and it was better than the lamps I used. So I bought 7 of them for the next workshop.
Feedbacks from the participants :
"I'd like to personally thank Sover for this most excellent workshop. The handbook was a model of clarity and really helped me to understand the servicing process. I was lucky in that my F2 was in reasonably good shape, though getting 1/1000th & 1/2000th into 'Sover spec' was a real challenge. In the end I got all speeds to within 1/4 of a stop apart from 1/2000th which had to stay at within 1/2 a stop - it took real skill to gently tap the right cam in the cam stack to get it exactly the right shape. My re-foaming was also described as 'not too bad'. I'm happy with that! "
"Thanks so much for the workshop, I really enjoyed it and learned so much."
"Thanks again. I had a great time."
"Great value in my view."
