That sticky shutter button made me hate my Leica for a full year

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.

2 comments

2 Comments

dylan_green581d ago

Three years ago I found a fossilized french fry under my M6's rewind knob and couldn't stop laughing for ten minutes. The previous owner must have had a picnic in a dust storm or something. It's amazing what gets stuck in these cameras over time, you think you bought a clean one but it's basically a time capsule of someone else's lunch. Did you ever get the eagle shot or was that the end of your wildlife photography career?

black.margaret1d ago

Those silica gel packs are a lifesaver for old camera gear... I found a half-eaten granola bar in a Pentax K1000 once and still wonder how it didn't mold. Tossed it and ran a dry lens cleaning cloth over everything just to be safe. That eagle shot was a blurry mess but I still framed it out of spite.