Video: The guy who fixes photography gear nobody else can

If you've ever broken some gear and then gone on to find out it would be 'uneconomical to repair', there might be hope for you yet. 

“The Camera Whisperer”, David Hilos, lives in Singapore. He’s a camera repair whiz who helps photographers revive broken equipment that professional repair centers won’t (or can’t) bring back to life.

Channel NewsAsia published a profile of Hilos.

Hilos tackles everything from minor focusing issues to waterlogged and corroded cameras and lenses. While bringing a drowned DSLR back to life is often nigh on impossible, Hilos still sometimes gets lucky.

Over the years, he has become respected in the Singaporean photography community for taking on “impossible” repairs for desperate owners and charging only a fraction of what service centers demand for work.

His interest in fixing the unfixable developed as a child. He described himself as obsessed with disassembling and reassembling his toys, and eventually became an electrical engineer.

Despite his reputation, his camera repair work is simply a side hobby which is contained on a small table in the living room of his apartment. He spends over 10 hours a week in his free time on repair work.

“For Mr Hilos […] fixing something that seems like an impossible task is something he finds ‘fulfilling’,” writes Channel NewsAsia.