4- I don’t need the complete service manual – just a few pages of it. Can you sell me just the pages I need?

Not anymore, we are sorry.

It would be easier just to giveaway the manual.

Manuals listed are ready to be shipped and download links to be sent.

It takes us more time to locate the required pages, convert them to PDF format and put them on a disc than it would for us supply you with complete CD or download  In each instance when we tried this, the customer had not completely described the problem and/or problem area and/or found additional problems and additional pages were required.

Please just buy the CD or download they are substantially less than an average repair charge for parts and labor.

5- Why are some manuals inexpensive and others very expensive?

The main factor in the price of a owners or service manual is the number of pages to be scanned, since that is the main factor in how long it takes to acquire all the images.

Some manuals contain many oversized (typically 11x17 inch pages) that must be assembled on one page for viewing.  This can take as long as 15 minutes per page, in some cases this is also a factor in the pricing of some manuals. For a few manuals, the pricing is affected by the scarcity or and demand for the original manual, since this determines what we had to pay for the original manual. For example, a 50 page manual takes approximately 3 – 4 hours from start to finish. If that manual sells several times a week, it will definitely cost less than a 50 page manual that sells twice a year.

Prices range from $6.50 for some simple parts manuals having only a few pages to $60  for the complete repair manual for a Hasselblad 500 C/M. 

My prices are, in most cases, are lower than today’s prices for CD manuals (photocopies or printed originals) obtained from the manufacturer.

Since Leica and Hasselblad customers pay more for their equipment than most, we did increase the resolution on those manufacturers pages to equal (in my opinion) the quality of the equipment.  Since they took longer to scan and assemble we are charging a little more for those.

6- Color or Black & White?

This primarily applies only to owner’s manuals. The only color used in some service manuals is for wiring diagrams.

When we have purchased owner’s manuals as copies, we noticed that it was very difficult or impossible, at times, to see where lines where you were directed to button or a lever for the particular operation or feature in question.  When we looked at original manuals we saw they were in color for a reason.  The manufacturers used color to highlight the area they were discussing.  They also used colored lines to point you to the area they were describing.  We could see no reason to scan in black and white since we were only talking about file size.  With color scans you will get a manual as the manufacturer intended them to be.

Color or B&W takes the same amount of time to scan and adjust.

7- A lens came on my camera from the factory, as a kit, but it is not in the service manual or parts list for the camera.

Service information on lenses is generally sold separately from camera service manuals. Camera service manuals may or may not have information on the lenses included with your camera, but are usually not.  Most camera service manuals only include information on the model listed only.  Exceptions are Mamiya and Nikon who have started to include some common and popular included accessories with your camera, finders, film holders and film backs, for instance. We try to show you those, as attributes when you check out, if any are recommended or required.

As a general rule, the following are not included in the factory repair manual for a camera:

1)     An owners or user's manual, or information regarding use of the camera or other piece of equipment.

2)    Repair information for lenses the camera was sold with.

3)    Repair information for film magazines, accessory finders and other accessories.

8- Why were supplements suggested when I was completing my online order?

Depending on the production year of the equipment, many technicians are primarily interested only in part numbers to correctly identify and order the correct parts accurately by part number.  However as manufacturer’s improved earlier designs, instead of creating new equipment lines (not very common today), minor changes were made and only a supplement would be available to show the changed parts and their locations.

Nikon FM, FM2, FE, FE2 and Minolta’s SRT series are only two examples. Many parts were interchangeable and in some cases, only a few were different. The body casting on any Minolta SRT camera is virtually identical and they accept many of the same parts or accessories. Yet they had at over 20 different models and at least 9 supplements.  As an example, you must have the original SRT 101 service manual to service and understand any of the SRT series cameras functions and operation. In addition the complete parts list will show you all the parts, exploded views and changes from model to model. 

9- Operator information ?

As a camera or equipment user/operator, the owner’s manual is your reference and information resource, not a service manual or parts list.

10- Where Can I download a manual?

All of the  owners and service manuals we have available are available for download and that is the preferred method of delivery.  Please note that we recommend you have high speed connection as some of them are quite large though many are approximately 10 meg.

CD's are always available, though the USPS fees go up every year for that packaging as it has to be hand sorted and cancelled.

11- Would a repair manual be of any use to me as a substitute for an owner’s or user’s manual?

No. Repair manuals are of very little use to a camera owner.  Information is of technical nature and not much information is directed towards the equipments use and application.

12- Repair manual or parts list or owners manual? or What is the difference in a service manual and a parts manual?

Different manufacturers follow different practices regarding the information and format of their repair manuals. Different manufacturers use different terms or nomenclature for parts in the titles of their manuals.

Generally, a parts manual includes at least two things: exploded views and a complete list of all parts that are used in the camera.  Many also include tools required and wiring diagrams and/or schematics. Parts manuals rarely, but on occasion, may include very limited repair information. Parts manuals are, depending on the manufacturer, also called exploded views, parts diagrams, parts lists, and parts catalogs.

**A service manual is where the adjustments, service and repair instructions are found. They generally include troubleshooting charts, tools required, test information, lubrication charts and other information required in accurately servicing that particular model. Some include duplicate exploded views, detailed sections on both disassembly and reassembly. These manuals may be titled Service Manual, Service Instructions, Repair Manual or even Service Information.

Instead of issuing separate service and parts manuals, some manufacturers issue a single manual that provides all information needed to repair or service a camera. This practice is becoming more common in the era of electronic cameras, since a parts manual is not adequate to service these more complex cameras. Again, if this is the case, we will try list any additions, which apply to your purchase when you check out online.

13- I have purchased copies before that were barely legible. Why should I buy from you?

Well, we tried everything we could think of and everything the high-tech people we know in the computer business could recommend, to give you the best scans possible. We have scanned hundreds of thousands of  pages and photographs.

What we found was: 

1)                 Most of the scans that we have purchased and used from manufacturers and other suppliers were poor at the very best. Many were concerned primarily with file size instead of quality.  Almost everybody is scanning the material through Adobe Acrobat Reader.  That program is best for viewing and assembling documents.  The main problem we had with Adobe for acquiring the image was that you could not adjust it. We found very few pages that did not need to be corrected for position, contrast and brightness. We felt this was critical for a quality and printable image.  

2)                 The paper, that the original printers used, when the manuals were originally produced, varied widely and the scan quality suffered at times.  Especially with older manuals.

3)                 Almost every image and page we scanned, needed to be digitally adjusted for best viewing and printing. Some as long as 5 minutes worth of adjustments before we felt we had a quality document.

4)                 If you are printing your manual, we found, for inkjet printing, Ilford gallery paper, approximately 100 sheets for $8.00, produced a premium image, but any paper gave excellent results.  Any paper worked well in laser or dot matrix printers

5)                 The manufacturers did not make manuals, with attention towards the quality and detail required for their information to be duplicated as scan or photocopy. The main factor in the quality of a particular scan is the quality of the original manual. Some people assume that repair manuals and owner’s manuals were printed with the same accuracy and quality as a book publisher. Camera manufacturers are not in the booklet or manual business.  They sell cameras.

6)                 You will not see some makes and models available.  We found some original manuals so poorly produced that age had made them nearly impossible to read. Even digitally improving them was much better but not very legible. Hence they were not worth scanning because we could not save them, yet.  If digital technology keeps improving we may have them available in the future. We will post this info to our site as soon as they become available.

7)                 The quality of printing of original repair and owners manuals varies considerably. We have found that generally Hasselblad, Minolta, Canon and Nikon produce the highest quality.  But there are certain manuals from these that are not great quality.

8)                 At US Camera, we only scan original manuals as purchased from the manufacturer. Some manufacturers now only supply their service and parts information on CD.

9)                 Also please note that service manuals were generally purchased by repair shops or technicians.  Where a consumer would buy an owner’s manual and stick in a drawer for years never using it, technicians would use their manuals often, sometimes daily. To find a manual, for a popular model that is 20 years old and never been used is very, very rare.  Most have been open, closed and used thousands of times. We digitally touched up some that were damaged in some way, to give them a clean appearance.   

We occasionally look at scans from prior’s months and think that  we could surely do better, so we re-scan some. Some were a little better and most are not. 

Most all scans are only 8-bit color or black and white to keep the file size down.  Also since we were working with screen primary colors and screen printed black and white, we saw very little difference when the pages were scanned in 24-bit color or more. 

We printed pages from many different manuals on photo inkjet printers, laser printers and dot matrix.  The dot printers were the worst but still acceptable if printed as a graphic.  Settings ranged from 360dpi to 880 x1440 and all produced very readable results. In all reality we did not see any noticeable difference if using 720dpi x 720dpi or 880dpi x 1440 dpi on inkjet printers or laser printers at 600dpi or better. 

Some of my scans, mostly in service, are from microfiche. We brought those scans in at no less than 2400dpi optical and manipulated them from there. 

Adobe acrobat reader was very poor if you scanned the image there and built a file with those scans. We could not manipulate the image without exporting the file to another program and importing  back into Adobe after it was adjusted. Too much time was involved for that.  It was much easier to scan in through a photo program and then import to Adobe when it was ready for assembling as one big file.

We have never seen a factory repair manual for a camera that was printed in full color. Later production equipment around 1974, when more electronics and wiring were introduced, colored wiring diagrams were included in some service and parts list.  Mostly Pentax.

As late as the early to mid-1970’s, some manufacturers printed repair manuals that looked like blueprints. This applies to some early manuals from Kowa, Mamiya, Miranda and Tokyo Optical (Topcon). Although they were printed in blue ink, they were printed on paper with a high wood pulp content that tends to discolor over time. While these scans are perfectly legible, these manuals tend to have light colored backgrounds instead of white, because of the discoloration of the paper.

Any paper manual purchased from Nikon today will be a photocopy or CD while the vast majority of manuals obtained from Minolta and Mamiya will be either photocopied or quick printed.

We have seen factory "photocopied original" manuals of such low quality that they are useless for reprinting and border on being illegible in some places. We have also seen reprints purchased from others on EBAY that appear to be several generations removed from the original.

Also please note that many owners manuals were inserted in the factory box with the equipment and folded in half or thirds at the factory.  If the customer did not ever use them they could have been folded for years. You will notice that sometimes the scan will show a gray area or shadow, in some cases where the folds were.  This is to be expected but all the information printed will be completely legible.

14- What if I need parts? Where can I find repair tools?

Search on the internet for camera parts or hand tools and many sources will be returned. We don’t currently endorse any company for service personally and have found the manufacturers no more or less accurate than a good shop who has the proper/current production test instruments and qualified technicians.

15- Does USCamera repair cameras or know someone who does?

We only repair our own cameras.  We working on some small service articles and will post them to this site as soon as they become available. 

At this time, we only sell parts for Canon, Kodak, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax and Sigma. We stock many parts for out of production / current production film cameras, lenses and Digital cameras. Foam Light seals and light seal material are also available for the most popular cameras of the 50's thru the 90's. We are currently negotiating with a closing service center to acquire their inventory of parts and manuals.  Check our site, we will list it here first..

16- The manual I need isn't listed.

Then just email us.  We will check availability and get right back to you.  Chances are very good we can scan it and have it ready to ship within a couple of days.

17- Can I cut and paste the photos and text?

No.  we capture the pages as a graphic and adjust for the best balance between text readability and image viewing.  We have tried OCR programs and they just don't do well with photo words (i.e.  Exacta usually is named exactly).  We would have to spend more time correcting the errors than if we had just typed the whole manual. Again, even if we used OCR on the text and then grabbed the photos or diagrams and built those pages it would cost more time than it is worth.  We would have days in processing each manual.  We still keep looking for a better way to do this and increase the quality.