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?

2 comments

2 Comments

chen.hugo1mo ago

Just cleaned one yesterday, made a huge difference.

vera_roberts1mo ago

Cleaning them out is a game changer for real. People forget how much gunk builds up over time. It's one of those small tasks with a huge payoff. You get better airflow and the whole thing just runs quieter. Why do we always put it off until it's really bad?