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Overheard a debate about old camera manuals at the swap meet
I was at the Pasadena swap meet last weekend and two guys were arguing over a box of 1970s camera manuals. One said keeping the original paper ones is a waste of space now that everything is scanned online. The other guy got really heated and said the scans often miss the tiny notes and grease pencil marks from past techs, which are like a repair history. He held up a Canon F-1 manual with a handwritten note about a shim fix. Made me think about what we lose when we go digital only. Do you guys keep the original paper manuals or are you all PDF now?
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uma65925d ago
Oh man, that guy is SO right. I scan the manual for a clean copy, but I keep the original paper one in the gear bag. Those old notes have saved me hours of guesswork.
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jennybailey25d ago
Exactly! My old shop manual is full of coffee stains and notes in the margin. The previous owner wrote down the exact torque spec that fixed a weird vibration. You can't get that from a PDF.
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