Hit my 10,000th shutter repair last Tuesday and had to stop for a minute

I was working on a Pentax Spotmatic from the late 60s, just replacing the foil curtains like I've done a thousand times. My logbook showed it was number 10,000 exactly. That number hit me harder than I expected because I started doing this out of my garage in 1995, never thinking it would turn into a real business. Now I'm wondering how many of those cameras actually got back to taking pictures versus just sitting on a shelf. Has anyone else kept count of a specific job that made you realize how long you've been at this?

2 comments

2 Comments

rivera.keith20d ago

That Spotmatic being your 10,000th really makes you stop and think, @jennifer_west. I used to scoff at folks keeping detailed logs like that, figured it was just extra work for no reason. Seeing someone hit a round number like that from actual records though, that's pretty cool. It makes all those years feel real instead of just a blur.

jennifer_west20d ago

Wait, you actually keep a logbook from 1995? That's some serious dedication right there, I gotta say I'm impressed. I mean, I've been running my own fencing company for about fifteen years and I couldn't tell you the last time I hit some big number like that. It just kind of blurs together. So you really sat down and counted every single shutter repair for thirty years? That's wild. I bet that Spotmatic felt different in your hands knowing it was number 10,000. It's almost like the camera itself knew it was special.