c/camera-repairers

17

lisa_hill23•3d ago

That old Rolleiflex shutter that locked up on me during a rush job

I was in my basement shop last Thursday trying to finish a Rolleiflex 3.5F before the owner picked it up Saturday. The shutter was cleaning up fine until I tested it and it just jammed at 1/500. Turns out a tiny sliver of old lubricant had dried and stuck the blade stack together. I had to disassemble the whole shutter block, clean each blade with lighter fluid, and reassemble it piece by piece. It runs smooth now but it ate up my whole evening. Anybody else run into old gummed-up lubricant on these German shutters?

5

ross.sean•3d ago

That $80 rubber ring set I bought for my Yashica literally melted within 2 weeks

Figured cheap seals from eBay would hold up for a basic CLA, but they turned into sticky goo and got all over the mirror box. Has anyone else had luck with generic kits or do you just roll your own from sheet material?

2

kelly.emma•5d ago

Camera strap screws kept loosening on me at a wedding shoot last month

I was shooting a wedding in Portland when I noticed my camera strap kept slipping. Tightening them with a tiny drop of blue Loctite fixed it solid. Anyone else deal with this?

17

dylan_rodriguez•8d ago

The thing that old Leica shooter told me at a garage sale still sticks with me

I was at this random garage sale in Portland about 6 months ago, just looking for old junk, and I spotted a beat up Leica M3 sitting on a table. The guy running the sale was this older gentleman, probably in his 80s, and he saw me staring at it. He said "that one's been through 3 wars and a divorce, it'll outlive us both." I asked him what he meant and he spent 20 minutes explaining how he never sent it to a shop for cleaning, he just used lens cleaner and a soft cloth on the body, nothing more. He told me most folks overcomplicate camera maintenance and end up breaking things by trying to fix what ain't broken. It really made me think about all the times I've taken apart a perfectly working shutter just because I thought it needed a CLA. Has anyone else had an old timer drop some simple wisdom on you that changed how you approach repairs?

6

alice_wilson73•8d ago

That batch of shutter fluid from eBay almost ruined 3 cameras

I ordered a big bottle of shutter damping fluid from a seller in Ohio last month, figured it was the same stuff I always use. By the time I serviced three Nikon FM bodies the fluid had turned into sticky goo inside the shutter mechanism. Has anyone else run into bad batches of this stuff from random sellers?

2

wendyc53•9d ago

A collector told me I was wrecking vintage lenses with my cleaning method

He said my using rubbing alcohol was stripping the coatings off old Zeiss glass from the 50s. Now I only use lens cleaning fluid with distilled water and a microfiber cloth, anyone else get burned by bad advice early on?

15

hayden_martin29•9d ago

Talked with an old repair guy at a camera show in Chicago last weekend

He told me he still uses his original Sinar P from 1982 and refuses to touch any digital backs. Said 'these new cameras are just computers with lenses, the real craft is in the mechanical parts.' It hit me different because I've been spending more time fixing circuit boards than aligning shutters lately. Anyone else feel like the trade is splitting into two separate worlds now?

17

reese_garcia•9d ago

Old Canon AE-1 finally locked up on me mid-shoot

Was testing a lens I just shimmed, and the mirror got stuck halfway up. Hadn't seen that failure in years. Anyone know if the old foam decay trick still works to fix the mirror bumper, or is there a better way now?

13

brookes37•11d ago

That week I flooded a darkroom with a simple shutter adjustment

Last March I had a week that started so good I thought I was on a roll. Tuesday morning I got a beat up Pentax K1000 in for a sticky shutter, easy fix right? I cleaned the blades and set the speeds with my tester, everything looked perfect. Then Thursday I did a Yashica Mat 124G, thought I had the leaf shutter timing spot on. But Friday afternoon I got a call from a customer in Austin saying their K1000 was puking light leaks like crazy. Turns out I over tightened a screw on the mirror box, threw the whole timing off. By Monday I had three returns sitting on my bench, all from my "good week" work. That $85 repair cost me about $200 in refunds and a dent in my rep. Has anyone else had a run of repairs that looked clean but all failed for different reasons?

12

sethtorres•11d ago

Had a shutter seize on a Nikon F3 during a wedding shoot

Happened two weekends ago in Nashville. Mid-roll, shutter just locked up at 1/60. Client was walking down the aisle. I swapped to backup quick but when I got home I tore it down. Found old lubricant had turned to glue on the mirror box mechanism. Cleaned it with some naphtha and relubed with proper damping grease. Works fine now but I almost sent it off to a shop. Anyone else run into this on older Nikons?

21

sandra916•12d ago

Heard a guy at a camera swap say 'don't blow the dust in, blow it out' and it clicked for me

I was at a camera swap in Phoenix last Saturday and this old timer was showing a young kid how to clean a sensor. He said 'most people just blow air into the mirror box and push crap deeper in, you gotta angle the blower away.' I've been fixing cameras for 3 years now and I totally never thought about that. All this time I was blowing dust deeper into the shutter mechanism on my own Nikon D750. After I tried his trick I got way less spots on my test shots. It's such a simple thing but it really changed how I look at cleaning now. Anyone else have a dumb little tip that took them way too long to figure out?

25

joseph_hunt•12d ago

The 'never touch the glass' rule on vintage lenses is getting ignored way too often

I had a customer bring in a 1960s Canon 50mm f/1.4 last week that was covered in thumbprints right on the front element. People keep wiping them with their shirt or a dry cloth and it scratches the coating. After three tries with proper cleaner and a microfiber cloth I got it clean, but the haze from the scratches still shows in bright light. Has anyone else noticed a recent uptick in junk lenses from people not knowing basic handling?

20

oscarmurphy•13d ago

Tried ultrasonic cleaning vs hand cleaning a stuck shutter, no contest

Had a beat up Canon AE-1 Program with a shutter that was sticking at 1/1000. Spent an hour with q-tips and lighter fluid getting nowhere. Threw it in my $80 ultrasonic cleaner with some warm water and dish soap for 3 cycles and the shutter snapped right back to life. Has anyone else gotten better results from one method over the other for stubborn leaf shutters?

6

ward.fiona•15d ago

Just realized most people are cleaning their lens elements the WRONG way

I was at a swap meet in Portland last month and watched three different guys scrub at a front element with shirt sleeves and lens wipes like they were scrubbing a dirty pan. All that does is push grit into the coatings and create micro scratches. I saw a Zeiss ZM 35mm f2 that had a haze ring from 2 years of this bad habit and the owner was clueless why his images looked soft. Has anyone else run into customers who swear by their aggressive cleaning method and refuse to listen about proper technique?

24

kelly61•17d ago

Figured out I was using the wrong screwdriver bit for decades on old Pentax bodies

I was stripping tiny JIS screws on a 1970s Spotmatic for the third time this year when a buddy handed me a #2 JIS bit and said 'try this.' The screw came out smooth as butter with zero cam-out. How many of you finally bought JIS bits after fighting with Phillips?

0

hill.barbara•20d ago

Finally came around on ultrasonic cleaning for old shutters after 6 years

Last month I had a beat up Pentax Spotmatic with a sticky shutter that just wouldn't free up with my usual method of lighter fluid and patience. A guy named Dave at the camera swap meet in Portland told me to just drop the whole shutter assembly in his ultrasonic tank with some simple green diluted 10 to 1. I figured I'd ruin it but after 3 minutes it ran smooth as new with zero damage to the blades. Has anyone else had good luck with this on older cloth shutters or am I just getting lucky so far?

27

shah.zara•22d ago

Finally swapped out my old lead solder for a proper rosin core last week

Used to fight with cold joints and bad flow for years until a guy at a NYC camera swap told me to try Kester 44, and now my shutter repairs actually stay put the first time; what kind of solder are you all using for circuit boards?

13

taylor.susan•23d ago

Pro tip: my uncle's old advice about using a toothbrush on shutter blades saved a repair job

He told me years ago to use a soft toothbrush and lighter fluid to clean sticky blades on an old Minolta... I thought it sounded crazy. Tried it last week on an SRT-101 that came in, and it worked perfectly, no residue left behind. Anyone have other weird but effective cleaning tricks for vintage shutters?

13

susan488•24d ago

Finally bit the bullet on a proper shutter speed tester

I kept putting it off because the good ones are pricey, but after messing up the timing on a Nikon FM2 last month, I had enough. Dropped about $350 on a brand new, calibrated tester from a shop in Germany. It showed up last Tuesday, and man, what a difference. I had a Pentax K1000 on the bench that was running slow, and instead of just guessing with the old 'listen and hope' method, I got exact numbers in seconds. Fixed a sticky governor I would have missed. It paid for itself on that one job alone. Anyone have a favorite brand for these, or is it pretty much all the same once they're calibrated?

20

jessica_dixon•24d ago

A vintage Pentax K1000 shutter curtain jammed on me mid-repair yesterday and I had to improvise a fix with a tiny piece of brass shim stock.

Has anyone else found a good trick for dealing with a sticky cloth shutter that won't reset fully without taking the whole assembly apart?

5

fisher.reese•27d ago

TIL a drop of lighter fluid can fix a stiff shutter dial

Had a Nikon FM2 come in last week with a shutter speed dial that wouldn't budge past 1/500. Customer said it was stuck solid. I was ready to start a full teardown to get at the mechanism, which would have been a couple hours of work. On a whim, I put a single tiny drop of Ronsonol lighter fluid right at the base of the dial with a needle applicator, let it sit for five minutes, and worked the dial back and forth. It loosened up completely after a few turns. The old lube had just gummed up. Has anyone else found a simple fix that saved you from a bigger job?

10

piper_thompson31•28d ago

Showerthought: I used to think old camera light seals were a total waste of time to fix

Last month, a guy brought in a Pentax K1000 from his dad's attic, covered in that classic sticky foam dust. I almost told him it wasn't worth the labor cost, which I usually price at $80 plus parts. He just asked me to try, saying it was the camera from his childhood vacations. So I spent an afternoon carefully scraping out the gunk with a dental pick and alcohol, cutting new seals from a sheet I had. When he picked it up and that back door clicked shut with a proper seal, he got this huge grin and said, 'Now I can finish the roll from 1992.' It hit me that I wasn't just fixing a light leak, I was reconnecting a story. What's a repair you almost passed on that ended up meaning more than you expected?

20

blake_lewis•28d ago

Serious question, has anyone else had a shutter curtain ribbon cable tear during a CLA?

I was cleaning a Pentax ME Super last week and the thin ribbon cable for the second curtain just split when I was putting the assembly back together. I learned you can fix it with a tiny piece of Kapton tape and a steady hand, but it was a real surprise. What's your go-to method for handling these fragile ribbon cables?

31

adam_butler38•1mo ago

Watched a guy strip the tiny screws on a Leica M3 top plate yesterday...

He was using a cheap driver that didn't fit right. I keep a set of JIS drivers for old Japanese cameras, and it's saved me a bunch of headaches. Anyone else have a go-to tool for a specific brand?

14

brianm27•1mo ago

A guy brought in his grandpa's old Pentax Spotmatic, said it was just for parts

He watched me fix the sticky advance lever with a drop of lighter fluid and a cotton swab. When it worked, he said 'He'd have liked that,' and I knew we'd saved more than just a camera. Anyone else get one of those quiet wins that makes the whole week?