Serious question, why does everyone replace shutters before testing the actual problem?

Last month a client brought in a Nikon F5 that was 'dead' and every other shop said swap the shutter. I spent 10 minutes checking the mirror box switch and it was just a bent tab, cost them $40 not $400. Am I missing something or is this trade getting lazy?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_kelly19h ago

The bent tab on the mirror box switch is a classic one, I've fixed at least three F5s that way. People forget those mechanical switches get tweaked from years of slamming the mirror up and down. Same with the little plastic arm on the shutter release button, sometimes it just gets sticky and needs a tiny drop of lube. You gotta treat these old cameras like mechanical watches, not computers. The lazy shops just shotgun parts at it because they don't want to spend the time tracing a simple circuit.

the_henry1mo ago

Had a similar thing with an old Mamiya RB67. Couple shops said the mirror was sticking and needed a full CLA. Turned out the foam bumper just got gummy. Scraped it off with a toothpick and put in a new strip of self-adhesive felt for like two bucks. Worked perfectly for years after that. People skip the simple stuff and jump straight to the expensive fix.

wren_smith441mo ago

Same thing happened with my friend's old Bronica. The mirror would hang up and a shop quoted him $300 to fix. I told him to just check the foam first. Used a toothpick and some isopropyl alcohol to clean the old stuff off. Stuck a piece of adhesive felt from a craft store on there for maybe a dollar. That was four years ago and he's still using it without issues. Sometimes the simple fix is all you need.