Brought a Mamiya RB67 back from the dead with a $6 spring

Found a 1990s RB67 at an estate sale with a completely frozen mirror mechanism. Tracked the issue to a single bent spring inside the body, swapped it out with one from a hardware store, and the mirror flipped right back up. Anyone else ever MacGyver a repair with non-camera parts?

2 comments

2 Comments

river1822h ago

Kinda reminds me of the time I fixed an old Pentax 67 with a guitar pick. The advance lever was slipping and it turned out the internal clutch plate needed a tiny shim. Used a piece of a blue Tortex pick, sanded it down with a nail file, and it worked like a charm (still does, actually). Camera people look at me weird when I pull that trick out at meetups. Hardware store springs are a classic though, that's next level.

willow7321h ago

Guitar pick shim is genius level stuff. Hardware store springs are the real MVP though, cheap fix that saves a whole camera. Makes you wonder how many "broken" cameras are just one random part away from working again.