Sendean Cameras

I just went to Sendeans to pick up a friend’s camera which had been in for repairs. I am glad places like this still exist — there really aren’t enough repair shops around. They are obviously good at what they do. The shop has an air of confident arrogance which often comes with being one of a kind.
The place looks as if it hasn’t been renovated for decades — and why should they, the workmanship should speak for itself.
I increasingly warmed to the staff as I was waiting to be served. One of the girls is the founder’s granddaughter, and they have another branch in Hattong Gardens which houses the digital specialists — they seem to be happy to discuss all problems at length and know what they are talking about.
Unfortunately, expertise and manpower comes at a price — my friend’s camera was repaired for just a little less than it would have cost to replace it.

When my Dad’s compact Canon broke recently I was really excited to find Sendean. The options for getting digital cameras checked over and fixed is usually stupidly expensive — you pay to send it off somewhere just to get a quote — so the fact that Sendean are central and will do a free quote was marvellous news.
It’s a treasure trove of a shop — if you’re into old cameras you could easily splurge a pile of cash on the gorgeous specimens they display in the window — and the staff seemed really friendly and helpful when I went in to drop off the camera. It took days and days to get the quote though, I ended up leaving a couple of answerphone messages which were ignored, then resorted to emails which I got a response to about a week later.
The results were not good. Unfortunately this awful culture we’ve built up of throwing things away when they are even slightly broken is perpetuated by the cost of repair being the same as the cost of replacement. I was astounded to discover that it was going to cost £120 just to fix the bit of the camera that realised there was a memory card inserted, and my Dad’s camera continues to sit idle on my desk.
Boo.

I got my Lomo LC-​A repaired here last year.
Lomos are great little things that just give amazing results, but anyone that’s ever used one will know they are shoddily made (hey, that’s their charm!) Mine had come loose at the front and was jammed up. Add in a terrible memory and a holiday booked for a weeks time and you get the panicky picture.
Anyway I looked online for a camera repair shop. I called a few places, some hadn’t even heard about Lomo so there was no way I was going to leave my precious little camera with them.
I was recommended Sendean as they’re Lomo stockists, and spoke to a girl who uses a Lomo camera herself. After a few minutes chatting about how great they are she asked me to bring it in so they could have a look. So on the Tube I went, and as soon as I got there I know I was in good hands.
Phil, the technician, looked over my poor casulty of war and he said it’s very common. He said it was full of sand (guilty as charged) and some screws had come loose and jammed the mechanism. BUT, he could fix it up for me! It was going to be £79 for a complete fix, good as new. The girl at the front who I spoke to (I think her name’s Lauren, she’s married to Phil the tech) took my details and I kissed my Lomo goodbye.
A few days later I got the call, my camera was done. So off I went again… but they were shut. It was only after a quick stop at the internet café next door I found out they’re not open weekend. Annoying! Anyway, first thing Monday morning I went and picked it up. It looked amazing, and I also managed to get a coveted Holga Kit too. They also gave me a free case with it! It’s worked fine for a year now, and if it ever gets dropped in the sand again, in the words of Arnie… I’ll be back.

There seems to be an abundance of camera repair shops in this area and I was going to do the sensible thing and go to each to enquire about price, but I was in such a rush that I ended up dropping mine off here.
There are three technicians at desks inside who are surrounded by mountains of cameras piled up high on every available surface, so I figured if so many other people were trusting Sendean’s then they must be A-​OK. I’m sure it’s all just organised chaos.
I have no idea about how much repairs should cost, but for my digital ‘point-​and-​shoot’ it was £56.70 just to fix the shutter and front together again that came loose after I dropped it. This seems overpriced, especially since as I still had all the parts so all they needed to do was a light, external repair as the actual mechanism still worked fine.
Nevertheless, It was ready in a week and is all in working order now, as they promised. but next time I think I’ll shop around. Most of the camera I saw looked like old DSLR’s, cinecam’s and 35 mm so perhaps it’s more of a specialist shop where it’s worth paying more for their expertise.