I spent an entire Saturday on a Canon A-1 shutter that kept sticking at 1/1000, and everyone says to just clean the magnets but the real fix was a tiny burr on the gear train nobody mentions. Has anyone else found the 'obvious' repair advice actually misses the actual problem most of the time?
He told me a little bit of haze is usually harmless and not worth the risk of scratching the coating trying to clean it, and after checking my own 50mm f1.4 that's been sitting for years, I think he was right.
I was up at Dave's Camera Repair in Akron about 10 years ago, helping him clear out some old parts. He showed me a box of cameras that people had sent in for CLA work, all with the same issue - someone had greased the shutter mechanism like it was a car engine. Dave told me that's the #1 mistake newbies make, thinking oil fixes everything. Has anyone else run into cameras where the previous repair person just dumped lubricant everywhere?
Used it on my 50mm f/1.8 and left micro scratches all over the front element. Ended up paying a shop $60 to polish it out. Anybody else fallen for those cheap kits from online?
I was at a swap meet in Portland last weekend and this older repair guy was telling someone he cleans shutter blades with Zippo lighter fluid. Said he's been doing it for 20 years and it works better than anything else. In my experience that stuff can leave residue if you're not careful, but he swore by it. Has anyone else tried this on a sticky shutter or is that just asking for trouble?
I was fighting a seized screw on a Ricoh XR-10 for almost 45 minutes. A old repair guy named Frank at the shop in Denver told me to hit it with a soldering iron for 10 seconds. I thought he was nuts because I was scared of melting plastic. Turns out the heat loosened the thread locker just enough and it came out smooth. Now I keep a cheap 30 watt iron just for this and it saves me at least 20 minutes per job. Anyone else use heat on stubborn camera screws or do you have another trick?
I read a tip from a guy on a Pentax forum about wrapping a wide rubber band around the filter ring for grip, and it worked first try on a stubborn UV filter that hadn't moved in 3 years, so has anyone else found a weird trick that actually works?
I had a Nikon D750 come through my shop last month from a wedding shooter in Louisville. The sensor was caked with something sticky, and I hit it with 99% IPA like usual. It left streaks that took three passes to fix. Now I'm wondering if a dry cleaning method with a carbon stick would have been easier that first time. Anyone else switch methods after a bad experience, or am I overthinking this?
I was cleaning out my shop last week and found my old Nikon F2 parts manual from 1978, with grease stains and notes all over it. Three years ago I tried teaching a young guy how to shim a lens mount, and he pulled out a YouTube video instead of letting me show him. Are any of you still seeing apprentices who actually want to learn the hands-on way, or is it all screen tutorials now?
I was fixing a old Pentax K1000 that had shutter speeds all over the place. Figured the mechanism was just gummed up after 30 years of sitting. Tossed the shutter assembly in a cheap $60 ultrasonic cleaner from Amazon with some Ronsonol lighter fluid for 3 cycles at 5 minutes each. After drying it with compressed air and re-lubing just the pivot points, the shutter speeds tested dead on at every setting. I was so skeptical about these things for years but now I'm a believer. Has anyone else had good results using specific solvents for cleaning camera parts in an ultrasonic?
Found an old mercury battery in a customer's M6. It had started leaking inside the battery compartment. Check your voltage meters before you put any battery in a vintage camera body. Anyone else run into corroded battery terminals on old Leicas?
Couldn't figure out why my Nikon FM had a thin streak on every frame until I realized the second curtain was hanging up by maybe 5 milliseconds. Has anyone else spent way too long diagnosing something that simple?
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Always thought Voigtlander Heliar designs were just hype for people with more money than sense. Picked up a beat-up 50mm f3.5 at a estate sale for $40, cleaned it up, and the sharpness across the frame blew me away. Anyone else had a lens brand they dismissed that turned out to be secretly great?
Was at a camera swap meet last weekend and this old repair guy was telling someone that anything above 91% evaporates too fast and can leave residue on the sensor. I always used 99% thinking it was better. Now I'm wondering if I've been doing it wrong this whole time. Any of you guys stick to 91% for cleaning?
Used to drop tiny screws inside mirror boxes for ages. Picked up a $6 magnetizer last week and now I never lose a screw mid-repair. Anyone else swear by these or got a better trick?
I finally got around to fixing that torn mirror bumper on my Minolta SRT-202 last weekend. For months I was just ignoring it, thinking the foam was fine enough since the mirror still flipped up okay. But after a roll of film came back with weird light leaks near the top edge, I had to face it. I ordered a replacement foam strip from a guy on eBay for like $8, took maybe 20 minutes to scrape the old gunk out and stick the new one in. The difference was night and day. No more stray light hitting the film, and the mirror slap sounds way more dampened now. Has anyone else put off a simple foam replacement way longer than they should have?
Had a weird dust spot that wouldn't budge so I took my A7iii to a local shop and the tech pointed out I'd been using APS-C swabs on a full frame sensor. Has anyone else accidentally used the wrong gear on their own stuff for way too long?
The cheap multi-tool I was using just kept slipping and scratching the ring, so I bit the bullet on a Knipex spanner and it paid for itself on the first job, has anyone else found one specific tool that just saved their whole workflow?
I picked up one of those cheap ultrasonic cleaners off Amazon thinking it would save me time cleaning old shutters. Paid about 80 bucks for it, figured it was a solid investment. Ran a set of brass gears from a 1960s Kodak Retina through it for two cycles with some jewelry cleaner solution. When I pulled them out the brass had this weird hazy look, almost like it got etched. Turns out those cheap units pulse at a frequency that can actually damage softer metals over time. I should have just stuck with my solvent bath and a soft brush like I always do. Now I'm stuck with a batch of gears that need repolishing before I can even think about reassembly. Has anyone else had a cleaner wreck parts or am I just unlucky with the cheap ones?
So I got this Praktica L from a flea market for $10. Shutter was completely locked up, wouldn't budge. I was about to just toss it in the parts bin when this older guy at a camera swap meet told me to try a tiny squirt of lighter fluid on the shutter blades. I thought he was crazy but figured what the hell. Used a precision oiler with some Ronsonol, just a drop, worked it back and forth maybe 20 times. After about an hour the shutter started firing again. But now I'm paranoid about residue or long term damage. Has anyone else tried this trick or is it a ticking time bomb?
Was standing in a field in Vermont last fall, missed a shot of a bald eagle because the shutter release felt like pushing through molasses, so I finally opened it up and found a dried drop of soda from the previous owner had gummed up the whole mechanism for probably a decade.
Honestly, that Tuesday was something else. I had three rangefinders come in from local photographers, and every single one had a different issue with the patch alignment. First one was a Canonet that had the RF patch completely blacked out, took me 45 minutes to figure out it was just a tiny piece of debris stuck on the mirror. Second one was a Yashica Electro that had the RF going out of whack after a drop, had to realign it twice before it held. Third was a Minolta Hi-Matic that had the viewfinder fogged up from old lubricant and I ended up tearing it down to the bones. By the end of the day I had a mess of tiny screws on my bench and a headache. Has anyone else had a day where everything just fights back like that?
I was shooting a wedding for a friend two weeks back in Green Bay and my Yashica-Mat's shutter just locked up at 1/125. I panicked and nearly threw it in the trash because I figured it was a goner. But a guy on the Facebook repair group told me to check the self-timer mechanism first. Sure enough, it was stuck in a half-cocked position, not actually broken. I dabbed a tiny bit of lighter fluid on the gears, worked it back and forth, and it's been fine since. Anyone else almost junk a camera over something dumb like a stuck self-timer?
I was using a standard microfiber cloth on my Nikon F2's focus screen and wondered why it always looked hazy. Then I scratched a test screen with the same cloth under a loupe. Switched to a Pec Pad and the difference was immediate. Anyone else find out they ruined a screen this way?