c/camera-repairers

The difference proper lubrication made on a seized Yashica shutter

I had a Yashica-Mat in the shop with a shutter that wouldn't fire at all past 1/100. After cleaning out old gunk and applying a tiny drop of synthetic watch oil to the blade pivot points, it fired clean at every speed within 10 minutes. Has anyone else noticed how much old lubricant turns into glue on those leaf shutters?

Tried to fix a stuck shutter on an old Pentax, ended up with springs flying everywhere

I was working on a Pentax Spotmatic from the 70s last Tuesday, trying to free up a sticky shutter curtain. Got the bottom plate off and was poking around when a tiny spring shot across my garage and landed in a pile of sawdust. Spent almost an hour on my hands and knees with a magnet rod before I found it wedged under my workbench. The shutter release lever had a hairline crack I didn't notice until I put it all back together and it snapped clean off. So now I've got a camera that's even more broken than when I started. Anyone else have one of those jobs where you make things worse before they get better?

Trying to clean fungus off a lens element and scratched it instead

Was working on a vintage 50mm f/1.4 from a thrift store find, used a microfiber cloth with some lens cleaner. Now there's a hairline scratch right in the center of the rear element. Anyone got a go-to method for fungus that won't wreck the coating?

Bought a $200 ultrasonic cleaner and ruined two lenses last month

Thought I'd save money cleaning my own gear but the solution was too hot and it stripped the coating off a 50mm f1.4 and a 28mm. Have any of you found a safe way to use these things without wrecking glass?

Tried cleaning fungus off a lens element with hydrogen peroxide and a UV light

I had this old 50mm f/1.4 that had some pretty stubborn fungus growth inside, nothing crazy but enough to show up in shots. I kept reading online that a mix of hydrogen peroxide vapor and UV light could kill and clean it off without taking the lens apart, so I figured why not give it a shot. Stuck the lens in a sealed bag with a little dish of 3% hydrogen peroxide, set it under a UV lamp for about 6 hours. Pulled it out and the fungus looked way less visible, maybe 70 percent gone after wiping what I could reach with a lens cloth. But I also noticed some haze on the inner elements that wasn't there before, almost like a residue left behind. So I ended up having to disassemble it anyway to clean that off with proper solution. Lesson learned: it might work for surface stuff, but for sealed internal elements, you're still better off cracking it open. Has anyone else tried this method and gotten better results without the haze?

Rant: Was I the only one using the wrong lubricant on shutter mechanisms?

I been fixing cameras for like 8 years in my shop near Austin. Always used standard sewing machine oil on shutter blades cause it seemed thin enough. Then last month a guy from a local repair meetup saw me doing it and was like 'dude, that's gonna gum up in 6 months.' He showed me a proper synthetic lubricant for leaf shutters and I felt like an idiot. Has anyone else had that moment where you realize you've been doing a basic step totally wrong for years? What tipped you off?

Went to a rental house in Seattle and saw a bunch of cameras with cracked mirror boxes

I was at Glazer's in Seattle last week checking out a used body and the tech there showed me three different Canon 5D Mark IVs all with the same cracked mirror box problem. One side of me thinks this is just bad luck or heavy use, the other side thinks it's a design flaw Canon should've addressed. Has anyone else seen this pattern on the Mark IV specifically or am I reading too much into it?

Shoutout to the guy who taught me to clean sensor contacts without fancy tools

Honestly, I've been fixing cameras for about 3 years now and I kept seeing people mess up their sensor contacts by using those expensive cleaning kits wrong. Last week a retired repair guy told me to just use a clean pencil eraser on the contacts instead. I tried it on a Nikon D7000 that was acting up and it fixed the connection issues in 2 minutes. No joke, it saved me from buying a $40 kit that I would have probably used wrong anyway. Has anyone else found a cheap trick that actually works better than the pro stuff?

Tried cleaning a Pentax K1000 prism with Windex and got a foggy mess

Last week I had a K1000 come through with a dirty prism, so I figured I'd use regular Windex like I do on window glass. Big mistake. It left this weird cloudy film that I couldn't wipe off no matter how many times I tried. Turns out the coating on those old prisms is way more delicate than I thought. Had to order a specific optics cleaner and spend an extra 45 minutes buffing it out with microfiber. Lesson learned the hard way. Anyone else wreck a part by using the wrong cleaning solution?

Just realized my lens cleaning routine was wrecking my coatings

Talked to a guy at a repair meetup in Denver who said alcohol wipes were stripping the anti-reflective layer over time, and I'd been doing it for 3 years without thinking. Has anyone else dealt with this or found a better way to clean front elements?

Stopped by a tiny repair shop in Spokane and noticed something weird

I was visiting Spokane last month and popped into this little camera shop off Division Street. The guy running it had been in business since 1987. What caught my eye was he had a whole drawer full of brass gears he’d cut himself on a lathe. In my experience, most shops just swap parts from donor bodies these days. Have you guys seen many repairers still making their own parts from scratch?

Vent: Thought I could fix a sticky shutter in 20 minutes, that was 4 days ago

I got this old Canon FTb in last week with a shutter that was hanging up at slow speeds. Figured it was just some dried up lube, you know, a quick clean and I'd be done. Well, three disassemblies later I finally found the real issue - a tiny burr on the shutter curtain drum that was catching on the fabric. That sucker took me about 18 hours total to find and file down smooth. I spent two full evenings just staring at parts under a loupe, wondering if I'd lost my touch. What really got me is how something so small (like barely visible to the naked eye) can stop a whole camera dead. Has anyone else sunk way more time than expected into a problem that seemed simple? I could use some war stories to feel better about this one.

Had to eat crow on an ultrasonic cleaner I was sure was overpriced

I spent $450 on a professional grade ultrasonic cleaner last month when my old one finally died. I fought it for weeks because I thought my cheap $80 unit did the same job. But after watching a repair buddy strip a shutter assembly spotless with the new one in half the time, I caved. Turns out the difference in frequency and heat control actually matters when you're trying to clean old grease out of lens helicoids without wrecking the brass. My cheap one just shook the parts around, this one actually dissolves the gunk. It paid for itself after two CLA jobs where I didn't have to redo the work. Anyone else get burned by thinking 'good enough' was fine until you tried the real deal?

That old timer who insisted on using lighter fluid to clean shutters was actually right

I spent 2 years fighting with sticky leaf shutters on vintage lenses using expensive cleaning solvents until I finally tried his trick on a sticky Compur shutter last month and it freed up completely in 5 minutes, has anyone else found that the old methods actually work better than the modern stuff?

Overheard a young guy at the shop say digital cameras killed the need for repair techs

Was at a camera swap meet last Saturday and this kid, maybe 22, was telling his friend that camera repair is a dying trade because everything's digital now and people just toss their gear when it breaks. I didn't say anything but it got me thinking. I've got a customer who still brings in his Nikon F2 from the 70s every 6 months for a CLA and another who shoots a Hasselblad from the 60s. Meanwhile I've had three digital cameras this month with mirror box failures where the repair cost is more than a used replacement. The old mechanical stuff is what keeps me busy honestly. Anyone else seeing more film cameras on your bench than digital these days?

PSA: I was using too much lubricant on shutters for 5 years

A retired repairman in Portland watched me clean a leaf shutter and said 'stop drowning it' and after 3 tries with less oil my focus ring finally stopped getting sticky, has anyone else had to unlearn over-lubricating?

Just found a trick for unsticking a stuck shutter blade with a drop of lighter fluid

I had a Pentax Spotmatic that sat in a damp basement for 5 years and the shutter blades were frozen solid, but a tiny drop of Ronsonol on the pivot points and some gentle cycling freed them up in under 10 minutes.

Spent 4 hours fixing a shutter that worked fine after 5 minutes

Had a Pentax Spotmatic come in with a sticky shutter at slow speeds. Cleaned the blades, lubed the gears, tested everything a dozen times. But the 1/1000 speed kept dragging by half a stop. Took me 3 hours chasing the curtain tension before I realized the mirror bumper foam was slightly tacky and grabbing the mirror on the way up. Replaced that little strip in 5 minutes and the shutter was dead on. Anyone else waste a whole afternoon on something that turned out to be a tiny foam piece?

Talked to an old repair guy at a camera swap meet and it shook me

I was at a camera swap meet in Portland last Saturday and got to chatting with this guy who's been fixing cameras since the 1970s. He told me he never uses canned air for sensor cleaning because the propellant can leave residue that attracts dust later. I've been spraying sensors for 5 years without a second thought. Has anyone else heard of this or am I the last to know?

Second time trying a CLA on a Yashica Electro 35 in my garage...

I had this Yashica Electro 35 sitting on my shelf for like 8 months. The first time I tried to do a CLA on it I got frustrated after 20 minutes and put all the screws in a bag. Last weekend I finally sat down with a fresh cup of coffee and a youtube video from a guy in Ohio. It took me about 2 hours but when I got the shutter firing again at the right speeds I actually felt proud. The trick was not using a cheap screwdriver set and borrowing a proper JIS one from my buddy. Anybody else find that using the wrong tool makes them want to throw the whole camera in the trash?

First time I saw a shutter curtain rebuild actually pay off after 6 months of practice

I picked up a beat up Canon FTb from a thrift shop in Columbus back in January. The shutter was completely toast, curtains all wrinkled and slow. I spent maybe 3 months on and off watching videos and practicing on junk bodies before I worked up the nerve to take it apart. Last week I finally finished the rebuild and ran it through a test roll. The difference was night and day. The first frame I shot at 1/500 came out perfectly exposed, no banding, no uneven drag marks across the film. I compared it to a test frame from my first attempt back in February and you can see exactly where I used to get those light leaks near the edge. Has anyone else held onto a cheap donor body just to practice curtain replacement?

Bought a $35 lens spanner off eBay and stripped the first screw I touched

The metal was so soft it bent just trying to turn a retainer ring on an old Pentax. Anyone have a brand of cheap spanner that actually holds up?

Did a dry lube on a Pentax KM shutter curtain and now it sounds different

I swapped wet grease for graphite powder on the curtain tracks of a beat-up KM and now the shutter sounds snappier but the self-timer is dragging. Is this a known trade-off or did I mess something up?

Just heard a guy at the camera swap meet say he never cleans mirror boxes

I was at the swap meet in Phoenix last weekend. This older guy was selling a bunch of old film bodies. He told a buyer, 'I never touch the mirror box. Just blows dust around.' That stuck with me. I've been fixing cameras for eight years. I think that's a bad way to go about it. A Pentax K1000 I fixed last month had a huge hair in the mirror box. It was causing focus issues on the ground glass. I cleaned it out with a small brush and a blower. The viewfinder was way clearer. Sure, you have to be careful. But saying you should never clean it is just lazy. It's part of a full service. How do you all handle mirror box cleaning on older SLRs?

Unpopular opinion: I compared a $40 set of generic spudgers to the Wiha ones and the cheap ones are just better for camera work.