I've been fighting with those horizontal cloth shutters for years. Finally sat down at my bench in Brooklyn yesterday and just watched the curtain action through the back with a flashlight. Noticed the second curtain was dragging by about 3mm. A tiny dab of lighter fluid on the axle and now it's hitting dead on at 1/125. Has anyone else had luck adjusting those tension springs without pulling the whole mirror box?
Old timer at the shop swore they'd break in a month. Got one from a box of parts last Tuesday and it's still working fine after 8 repairs. Anybody else find these hold up better than people say?
I was at my cousin's wedding in Austin last month, and someone handed me a Leica M3 that was jamming mid ceremony. I had my tools in the car, so I popped the baseplate and tweaked the takeup spool under a table with a napkin as a work surface. The bride's dad asked if I could fix it in 10 minutes - I did, but I was sweating bullets the whole time. Anyone else ever do field repairs at an event they were supposed to enjoy?
Honestly, I was using a regular Phillips on those tiny screws inside a shutter assembly and kept slipping. Tbh I thought $60 was steep for a set of drivers but I grabbed a Vessel set off Amazon. First try with the JIS bit, the screw came out smooth no damage. Has anyone else had that moment where you realize you've been using the wrong tool for years?
I've been fighting with this sticky haze inside a Pentax Spotmatic viewfinder for like 2 weeks. Tried isopropyl alcohol and lens cleaner but nothing worked. Then I remembered reading about using Rodico on old mirrors and figured why not try it on the prism. Used a small rolled piece of Rodico to gently dab the haze off the prism surface and it came clean in about 10 minutes no scratches. Has anyone else used Rodico for internal cleaning or am I just slow to catch on?
I had a day last week where every shutter speed on every Nikon FM2 I serviced was dead on after the first try. No rework, no chasing sticky blades, just clean bench work from start to finish. Has anyone else ever had one of those perfect days where the cameras just cooperate?
I thought I could save a few bucks by swapping a hot shoe from a junk Zenit onto a newer Yashica body I was fixing. Figured it would be a quick solder job. Well, the contacts were totally different spacing. Ended up frying a capacitor on the Yashica's board. Learned the hard way that not all hot shoes are created equal even if they look the same. Cost me $35 for a replacement part and 3 hours of rework. Has anyone else messed up a repair by trying to reuse old parts that weren't compatible?
I crossed 500 shutter fixes in my shop last month and suddenly started noticing the same tiny gear stripped in almost every camera from 2018-2021. Has anyone else seen that plastic drive gear fail like clockwork around 50k actuations?
I used to see a ton of Kodak Retinas and old leaf shutters that were bone dry but still worked fine with a tiny drop of naphtha. Now I'm getting more digital-era cameras where the grease has turned into a sticky paste, especially on Canon 5D mirror boxes from around 2008. Has anyone else seen that gummy residue show up way more often on later models?
I always swore by electronic shutters for mirrorless cameras. Thought they were quieter and had less wear and tear. But after repairing that 500th mechanical unit at the shop in downtown Portland, I started noticing how often the electronic ones just fail with no warning. Now I tell people to get a camera with a mechanical option even if they never use it. Has anyone else seen a pattern with certain brands' electronic shutters dying faster than expected?
I read a repair manual from 1985 that described using a diluted isopropyl alcohol solution on a sensor, and it surprised me how common this was before modern dry swabs existed. The manual said repair shops in Tokyo had been doing this for years with no damage. Has anyone here tried a liquid method on older CCD sensors and seen better results than dry cleaning?
Back in 2021 I had a customer bring in an AE-1 that smelled weird. When I popped the bottom plate off, a big cockroach ran out across my bench. It had been living off the foam seal degradation inside the mirror box. Has anyone else found live bugs inside old gear or was that just my bad luck?
I spent 3 hours last Tuesday fighting with a stuck screw on the prism of an old Nikon F2 using a standard Phillips head and kept stripping the edges. After reading a tip online I grabbed a $15 Vessel JIS screwdriver set and that same screw came out in under 30 seconds without any damage. Has anyone else found that using the wrong screwdriver type has cost them more time than they expected on old Japanese cameras?
I was at the Portland Camera Show last Saturday picking through a box of old bodies, and one Minolta felt dead with no meter response. After opening it up, I saw a ground wire had just popped off its solder point inside the mirror box. Has anyone else run into loose wires on these older SRT models, or was this just a fluke on this one camera?
I picked up a beat up Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 at a flea market in Portland for $15. The glass looked clean but the focus ring felt like it had sand in it. I hemmed and hawed for a month before sending it to a guy in Seattle who specializes in FD lenses. He charged me $85 for a full clean and lube, and I honestly thought I threw that money away. When I got it back, the focus was smooth as butter and my test shots showed zero haze. Now I budget for a CLA on any lens older than 30 years before I even shoot it. Has anyone else had a lens come back from a clean that surprised them?
I had this old 50mm f/1.4 that's been sitting on my shelf for months because the aperture blades were oily and slow. Took it apart yesterday and used some lighter fluid and a q-tip to clean each blade carefully. After letting it dry for an hour the blades snapped back perfectly. The difference before and after is night and day. Anyone else have luck reviving lenses with just a basic cleaning like that?
After letting it soak in lighter fluid for 3 days with no luck, I hit it with the heat gun on low for about 20 seconds and the blade finally freed up, anyone else tried heat on sticky blades or is that a bad idea?
Drove out to Boise last weekend. Hit up some random garage sales. Found this beat up Leica IIIf buried under a pile of old clothes. The lens was foggy, shutter stuck, and the leather was peeling. Asked the guy how much. He said $40. I paid it. Got it home and spent 3 hours cleaning the fungus off the front element. The glass is actually in good shape. Has anyone else found a hidden gem like that in the wild?
I was fixing a Nikon FE2 where the film advance lever was stuck. Turned out a previous repair person had put a helicoil in the winding mechanism mount, and it had seized up with old dried grease. Took me 4 hours just to carefully drill it out without messing up the aluminum threads underneath. Anyone else run into a botched helicoil job that took way longer than it should have?
I was working on a Nikon FE2 this morning in my shop near Austin and noticed something weird. A lot of people online say to just use a phone app to check shutter speeds but those things are way off. My tester showed the 1/1000 was actually 1/750 which is a full stop off. Has anyone else had bad luck with those phone light sensor apps for timing?
In my experience, that stuff leaves residue more often than not if you don't evaporate it perfectly. Has anyone else had better luck with a dry brush method on stubborn spots?
I was working on a Nikon FE last week and used some random 3-in-1 oil on the shutter mechanism because I was in a hurry. After 2 days the oil had gummed up and the shutter started sticking at 1/1000. I had to completely disassemble it again and clean everything with lighter fluid. Switched to a proper camera oil from Micro-Tools and it's been smooth as butter. Anyone else have a bad experience using the wrong lube?