I had had some troubles with my mum’s Voigtlander Brilliant from the start. The camera was first my grandfather’s who bought it in the displaced persons camp in Germany after the war. It came to Canada with him and to the logging camps where he worked for a year before earning the right to bring my grandmother and uncle to Canada.
The camera also went back to Europe with my mum when she visited Poland. with so much family history in it, I sat down one more time at my makeshift work bench and found that a screw had come loose and was rattling around inside.
The screw hole was also letting light in. I did find and retrieve the screw, but it was stripped and wouldn’t go back in. Thankfully, I had some watch screws from a failed attempt at fixing a mechanical watch. One of them did the trick.
I put a roll of film through the camera and it works well. I may not take it out often, but I was pleased to see that I had successfully brought a family camera back to life.
-KMSB
