Just got three cameras back from Eric Hendrickson who runs pentaxs.com including a cherished ME SE that was my grandfather’s. He was able to CLA, adjust shutters, replace light seals, and repair both Spotmatics and ME in a single day. I got everything back one week from ship date. He is the best Pentax technician. Dude worked at Honeywell assembling forever and is ridiculously cheap. Like I haven’t found any cheaper CLA service for anything.
Before I found him, I was going to use Blue Moon Camera- a great shop but was double the price for a simple CLA plus repair costs. I’m pretty sure they just ship out to a tech anyways. Eric was incredibly kind and responsive. He would email back within the hour and warranties all his repairs.
Instead of overpaying on a AAA+++ super mint mystery gamble with 2-4 week wait time and tariffs, please consider pentaxs. Save some money on a camera that needs a little work and support someone who has dedicated their life to analog film photography.
Any used camera needs a CLA and shutter tuning. Otherwise you are overpaying on something you cannot trust and is not accurate. Do your part to rescue and maintain cameras so we can continue to pass them along to the next generation. Your photos will thank you!!!
Hopefully this doesn’t break tos- I don’t have any relationship, just wanted to share my experience and thoughts.