Found a weird trick for cleaning old shutter blades that actually worked

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?

3 comments

3 Comments

thomas_sanchez1mo ago

Have you heard of using a pencil eraser on shutter blades, or is that just a myth?

troy_price1mo ago

Dryer sheets for sticky shutters? thats a new one lol. Ive heard of people using naphtha or lighter fluid but never that. Might have to try it on a beater camera i got that has a lagging shutter. Gonna grab some unscented ones later and see if it works.

hannah3201mo ago

Is it really that serious though? I mean, sticky shutter blades on a 50 year old camera, it's not exactly a life or death situation. You tried some stuff, it worked, cool. But now people are acting like dryer sheets are some kind of miracle fix for everything. Next thing you know everyone's gonna be wiping down their lenses with them and wondering why they get a weird film. I get that it's a neat trick, but lets not pretend like a slightly lagging shutter is the end of the world. Maybe just take a deep breath and let the camera be old.