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Vilmos Kerestez, Chief Engineer and Manager of Professional Camera.
In the photo above I am the tall guy with the pink shirt with his back to the camera. I am in the midst of talking to the guy with the glasses. This is Vilmos Kerestez. This man was an intellectual giant. He was the General Manager and Chief Engineer at Professional Camera Repair in NYC where I worked as a camera repair technician. Back then the top photographers from all over the world would come to Pro Camera to have special cameras and equipment custom built to their specs just so they could get that special shot that they wanted. Vilmos was the guy who turned all their dreams into reality. Once he saw I had some ability he took me under his wing almost like his son and he personally taught me everything he knew. My contribution was my electronics knowledge. I then went on and designed and built a half frame Nikormat camera and a Super 8 PLL motor speed control. One thing I learned from Vilmos was to do a quality job no matter what. He always told me: "It not only has to work good, it has to look good" and that is way I repair, or rebuild everything since that time.
Pro Camera closed because digital photography killed the film camera business, but I think about Vilmos and the things he taught me almost daily because I am designing and building new things almost every day just like he did. I will never forget Vilmos and the impresion he made upon my life, and my work habits.