A retired repair guy at a camera show in Portland told me last year that canned air can wreck cloth shutters. I thought he was being overly cautious, so I kept doing it on a beat up Nikon FM I was cleaning. A few weeks later the shutter started dragging on the second curtain, and I had to take it apart and manually straighten out a fold in the material. The air blast had pushed a dust speck behind the curtain and created a bulge. It took me three hours to fix what could have been avoided. Anyone else ever mess up a shutter by ignoring the old school advice? I feel like I learned the hard way.
Picked this up from an old repair guy in Detroit last month. Took a toothpick, wrapped a tiny piece of Pec-Pad around it, dabbed some Eclipse fluid. Way more control than those chunky swabs. Done three sensors so far no streaks. Anyone else try this or got a better hack for stubborn spots?
Took me 2 hours to realize it was a prototype model from a 1965 trade show in Chicago with non-standard threads on the shutter release, and I had to undo all my work and start over with the right parts.
Got a Pentax K1000 on the bench last week with weird fogging on the left edge of every frame. Chased my tail for hours cleaning the shutter curtains, checking the lens mount, even swapped the back door. Turned out the foam strip on the bottom of the mirror box had turned gooey and was dripping onto the film plane when the mirror flipped up. Never thought to look there since the mirror itself looked clean. Whole job took maybe 20 minutes once I spotted it. Anyone else get burned by an obvious problem hiding in plain sight like that?
Overheard a retired repair guy at a camera show in Toronto saying he uses Ronsonol to clean old Helios-44 grease before relubing, claims it dissolves the old stuff without damaging the brass. Has anyone tried this method on a stuck M42 lens?
Read a post from some repairer in Portland saying to never remove the shutter curtain for cleaning because you'll mess up the tension - tried it his way for 6 months and got constant light leaks. Anyone else found their advice just doesn't work on certain models like the F2?
I've been using a flatbed scanner for years, an Epson V600, and thought mirrorless cameras were just for people who wanted fake sharpness. Then I borrowed a friend's Sony A7R II and tried it with my Nikon 55mm micro lens, and the detail on a Kodak Portra 400 negative blew me away in like 5 minutes. Has anyone else had that moment where you realize you've been overcomplicating your scanning setup for no reason?
I stopped by a tiny antique shop in South Philly last weekend and found a brass jeweler's loupe for $8. I've been using it to eyeball shutter blades and lens elements up close, and it actually shows me dust and oil spots way better than my cheap magnifying lamp ever did. Anyone here use a loupe instead of a scope for quick inspections?
I had this old Mamiya RB67 sit on my shelf for like 8 months. The shutter was totally stuck on the 127mm lens. I tried using lighter fluid to clean it, but that just made a mess and gummed things up worse. Switched to pure isopropyl alcohol and a soft brush, working the shutter blade edges gently over 3 days. The difference was night and day, the alcohol evaporated clean and freed everything up. Has anyone else had better luck with isopropyl over naphtha for sticky shutter blades?
Turned out the calibration was off by a full stop on every lens I tested, so I spent another $40 on a calibration chart and a weekend fixing it - has anyone else gotten burned by old test gear bought online?
I was down in Cincinnati last weekend and found a beat up Leica M3 in a thrift shop for $80. The shutter fires but the rangefinder is fogged and the curtain has a pinhole. My buddy says it's a total waste of time and money to fix, but I think even if I spend $300 on a CLA it's still a classic piece worth saving. On the other hand, you can get a working Canon P for the same money and have change left over. What do you folks think - is there a line where a camera body is too far gone, or do you always try to resurrect the classics?
Tbh I was trying to clean a sticky shutter mechanism on an old Canonet and every forum said ultrasonic bath. I read a 1970s repair manual that said just use lighter fluid and a brush. Tried it and it worked way better without risking the lubrication. Has anyone else had better luck with old school methods over the fancy stuff?
I spent like 2 years stripping screws on old Nikons and Pentaxes using standard philips bits. A guy at a camera swap in Portland last month handed me his JIS driver and told me to try it. No joke the screws came out smooth with zero cam out. Has anyone else made this switch or do you guys just stick with philips?
I was fixing up a Yashica-Mat EM last week and the shutter blades got stuck halfway open after I cleaned them with lighter fluid (the usual trick). Turns out I didn't let the fluid fully dry before testing - left it for 20 minutes instead of an hour. Has anyone else had this issue with leaf shutters and what's your drying time rule?
After that disaster I finally caved and bought a water alarm system from a plumber buddy in Denver, and now I'm actually glad I did because it already caught a tiny drip under the sink last Tuesday.
I had a Pentax Spotmatic from the 70s sitting on my bench for months. The shutter blades were sticky and nothing I tried worked. No amount of lighter fluid or contact cleaner made a difference. Finally I tried wiping them down with a dryer sheet, the unscented kind, and it actually freed them up. I have no idea why this worked but I tested it on three other cameras and got the same result. Has anyone else found a random household item that fixed a stubborn shutter issue?
Picked up a beat up Pentax K1000 from a flea market in Nashville for $15. Tried using my regular Phillips set on the bottom plate screws, stripped one right away. Ordered a set of JIS screwdrivers off Amazon for like $20. Night and day difference - those screws actually came out without fighting me. Has anyone else had that moment where you realized you were using the wrong tool for Japanese cameras?
Had a Nikon F2 come in last week with a shutter that looked like it got sandblasted. Previous guy tried blowing dust off the curtains with compressed air and actually tore a hole in the titanium. Use a soft brush and gentle vacuum instead. Never had this issue before I started seeing other repair guys do it. Anyone else run into this damage yet?
I was going through a box of old repair logs from a shop in Chicago that closed in the 80s and found a note saying nearly 60 percent of the Rolleiflexes they serviced had the 1/500 speed stuck. That surprised me because I always thought those cameras were built like tanks. I double checked my own collection and sure enough, two of my three have the same problem. Has anyone else found a reliable fix for this besides a full CLA?
Some guy named Dave who used to work at Canon dropped off a F-1 for a CLA and saw me using a phone app to check shutter actuations. He said those apps are off by like 30% on mechanical cameras and showed me his method of counting from the sound of the mirror slap on a recording. How do you guys actually estimate shutter wear on older bodies without electronic counters?
Dude used a flathead screwdriver on a JIS screw and stripped it so bad I had to drill it out, now I'm never touching those cheap amazon repair kits again, anyone else have horror stories from DIY attempts?
I see so many folks here swearing by isopropyl alcohol and swabs for sensor contacts on old film cameras. But after working on a dozen Pentax K1000s last month, I found that a clean, dry microfiber cloth works just as well without the risk of leaving residue. I used to follow the alcohol method too until I noticed some sticky film on a shutter contact from a batch of off-brand wipes. A dry cloth fixed that right up and the camera fired every time after that. Maybe I'm lucky with my specific cameras, but I think the alcohol hype is overblown for simple contact cleaning. Has anyone else had a similar experience where the simpler approach worked better for them?
I was working on a 1940s Speed Graphic in my shop near Reading Terminal last Tuesday. My hand slipped while checking the bellows and the lens board hit the concrete floor, cracking the shutter housing clean in half. I had to find a replacement part from a guy in Pennsylvania who specializes in old Graflex parts, cost me about $120. Anyone else ever break something expensive while working on a repair?
Used a rocket blower on a dirty mirrorless sensor last month and it left streaks, then tried canned air on another body and it worked fine but I'm paranoid about propellant. Has anyone else run into this or am I just unlucky with the bulb blower?