c/camera-repairers

Took me 5 tries to get this shutter timing right

Been working on this old Pentax Spotmatic since last Tuesday. The shutter speeds were all over the place. 1/1000 was actually at 1/250. Spent 3 hours with a shutter tester trying to dial it in. Finally got it within 10% across all speeds. That felt good. The calibration screw is so tiny I almost dropped it twice. Anyone else use a specific method for old Copal shutters?

Old timer at the shop told me my solder joints looked like bird droppings

Back in 2018 a guy named Ed who'd been fixing cameras since the 70s called me out for cold joints on a Canon AE-1 shutter repair. He made me redo every connection and showed me how to hold the iron steady with my pinky against the board. After that day my success rate on electronic shutters jumped from maybe 60% to over 90%. Anyone else have a mentor that called them out on a basic skill like soldering or cleaning?

I finally got a Nikkor 50mm f1.4 lens back from fungus damage

I picked up this old Nikkor 50mm f1.4 at a flea market in Portland for $20 last month. The glass had this spiderweb of fungus inside, and I almost tossed it. But a buddy in the club said to try UV light exposure for a few days, then clean with hydrogen peroxide. I was super skeptical, figured it was a lost cause. After 3 days under a UV lamp and some careful swabbing, the fungus was gone. The lens now shoots sharp as anything with no haze. Anyone else had luck saving a lens like that or did I just get lucky?

Took me 2 years to realize I was cleaning lenses wrong with a dirty blower

I always used this old rubber blower I got at a garage sale in Portland. Last month I was working on a Canon 50mm f/1.4 and kept seeing little spots inside after I thought I cleaned it. Turned out the blower itself was spitting out dust from 10 years of sitting around. Anyone else check their tools before using them on a job?

Had a camera come in that was FULL of honeybees last Thursday

Finally fixed a sticky aperture on an old Canon FD 50mm after 3 tries

I picked up this beat up 50mm at a flea market near Sacramento for $10. The aperture blades were sluggish and stuck wide open. After two failed attempts where I lost a tiny spring and then misaligned the helicoid, third time was the charm. Got it all back together and clicked through every f-stop cleanly. Anyone else had a lens that fought back hard before finally giving in?

Changed my tune on using a toothbrush for sensor cleaning

I always thought canned air was good enough for dust on the sensor (I mean, it works for keyboards, right?). But after 3 tries at a shoot near Asheville, I still had spots in the same corner. A fellow repairer at a swap meet told me to use a soft brush and a sensor swab with methanol (like the Eclipse stuff) and it took off that stuck-on gunk in one pass. Anyone else fought with stubborn sensor dust and found a weird trick that actually works?

TIL the spanner set I bought 8 years ago actually had a hidden size

This week a customer brought in a Pentax K1000 with a stuck lens ring. I was about to order a new tool when I flipped the case liner in my spanner set and found a size I never noticed. Anyone else find useful stuff they forgot they owned?

Stumbled on a stat that 70% of cameras from the 1960s are still functional

I was reading an old repair manual from 1972 I found at a garage sale, and the preface mentioned that statistic based on a survey of shops. It surprised me how many mechanical cameras from that era are still kicking around if they got basic care. Has anyone else run into numbers like that for a specific decade?

Am I the only one who thinks canned air is bad for most camera shutters?

I keep seeing people recommend blasting dust out of shutters with canned air and it drives me crazy. Last year I had a Nikon F2 come in with a shutter that was sticking at 1/1000. The guy said he used canned air to clean it. When I opened it up, there was condensation residue from the propellant all over the curtain blades. Canned air shoots liquid if you tilt it even a little, and that liquid eats away at the lubricants on the pivots. I've fixed 4 shutters in the last 6 months that had the same issue. Use a proper bulb blower or a compressor with a moisture trap. How many of you have seen damage from canned air in your shops?

Caught a guy on eBay trying to sell a 'mint' Pentax K1000 with the mirror foam completely melted

He had it listed as 'no issues' but the photos showed goo dripping down into the viewfinder, and I knew right away because I've replaced that foam on 3 of those bodies this year alone. Anyone else get tired of calling out sellers who miss obvious stuff like this?

Visited a camera shop in Burlington that changed how I clean sensors

Stopped into a repair shop in Burlington, Vermont last week and the guy there showed me a trick with a copper brush and static charge. He said most people use too much pressure on sensor cleaning swabs and push debris around. Now I'm wondering if I've been doing it wrong for years on my Canon 5D Mark IV. Anyone else ever get shown a method that totally flipped your routine?

Old timer at the shop swore by lighter fluid for sticky shutters

Had a Canon FTb with a sticky shutter hanging around for months. Guy named Dave at the local camera meetup in Denver said to try lighter fluid on the shutter blades. Told me to apply a tiny drop and let it evaporate. Worked like a charm after I let it sit for 15 minutes. Anyone else use lighter fluid or is that a known hack I just missed?

Had to pick between two lens cleaning fluids for a sticky aperture

I was working on a vintage 50mm f/1.4 lens that had oil on the aperture blades. I had two options on my bench: my usual lighter fluid or some fancy isopropyl alcohol mix I saw a guy on Youtube use. I went with the lighter fluid because it evaporates faster and doesn't leave residue. The aperture snapped right open and shut clean in about 10 minutes. Has anyone else had luck with the alcohol method on older lenses?

Went to a vintage camera show last weekend and saw three different guys using the same broken shutter spring trick from the 70s

One of them was fixing a Pentax Spotmatic with a paperclip and a rubber band which honestly worked better than any new part I've seen has anyone else noticed the old field repair methods coming back or is it just my area?

I think everyone here is too quick to toss old shutters

I was up at a shop in Portland last month helping a guy go through a box of old Kodak Retina parts, and he pulled out a shutter that looked like it had seen better days. Everyone in the room told him to just scrap it and get a modern replacement. But I spent about 45 minutes cleaning out the old gunk, re-lubing the right spots, and adjusting the spring tension. That shutter came back to life and fired perfectly at every speed. I just don't get why we're so quick to ditch the old stuff when a little patience can fix it. Has anyone else had a shutter you saved that others said was toast?

PSA: I found out the hard way that lens fungus can smell like old cheese

I was cleaning a vintage 50mm lens I got from a pawn shop in Tulsa, and I noticed this funky odor coming from the glass. Turns out, the fungus inside the elements gives off a distinct cheesy smell when it's been growing for a while... I had to take the whole barrel apart and soak the glass in hydrogen peroxide. Has anyone else noticed weird smells coming from older lenses during a repair?

Dry fit advice from a retired shop owner cost me a shutter

I was working on a Pentax Spotmatic last week and this old timer at the local camera club told me to dry fit the shutter curtain every time before adding the final tension. Ignored him because I was in a hurry, now the curtain is jammed and I have to tear the whole top plate off again. Anyone else learn this lesson the hard way by skipping the dry fit?

That old timer who called me out for using canned air on shutters

A retired repair guy watched me blast a shutter with canned air and just shook his head. He said 'you're just pushing grit deeper into the pivots, use a blower bulb instead.' I brushed him off at first, but after three repairs came back with sticky blades, I caved. Switched to a rubber blower bulb for all shutter work about 6 months ago, and my return rate dropped from like 1 in 8 to maybe 1 in 40. Canned air still gets used for sensors and mirrors, but not on mechanical parts anymore. Has anyone else had to unlearn a bad habit from a stubborn lecture?

Ngl I still cringe when people try to pry open a lens barrel with a flathead screwdriver

Saw a guy on Youtube doing it to a 50mm f/1.4 the other day and it hurt my soul. I've been fixing cameras for about 15 years now and I swear that's how half the stripped screws I see come in. I learned the hard way back in 2012 when I cracked a rear element on a Pentax K1000 trying to be clever. Rubber jar opener and proper JIS drivers are like ten bucks total. Has anyone else seen a repair go south from bad tool choices?

Fixed a sticky shutter on a Canon AE-1 with just lighter fluid and a Q-tip

Had this AE-1 sitting in my shop for weeks with the shutter hanging up at slow speeds. Took the bottom plate off and dabbed a tiny bit of Ronsonol on the pivot points of the curtain mechanism, worked it in with a Q-tip. After three cycles it was back to normal, fired perfectly at 1/60 and all the way down. Anyone else swear by lighter fluid for old Copal shutters or am I just being lazy?

Cura leaf shutter mainspring snapped on a brass lens from the 1920s

I was cleaning this old Wollensak Verito lens and the mainspring just gave out when I was testing the shutter speeds. The tension felt fine before, so I'm wondering if these old brass lenses need a different approach to cleaning. Has anyone else had luck finding replacement springs for these things, or do you usually just convert them to a packard shutter setup?

Realized I was over-lubricating shutters after a Nikon F2 job went wrong

For about 6 months I was putting a drop of oil on every pivot point I could reach, thinking more was better. Then a customer's shutter started dragging at 1/1000 and I had to strip it down to clean out the excess. Anyone else learned this the hard way or am I the only one who went through a whole bottle of watch oil before figuring it out?

Took me 8 years to figure out I was cleaning lens elements wrong

I had this old 50mm f1.4 that kept getting these weird spots after cleaning, and I thought it was just dust getting in. Turns out I was using too much lens cleaning fluid and it was seeping around the edges of the glass. A guy at a camera shop in Portland saw me doing it and told me to use a microfiber cloth that's barely damp, almost dry. I felt like an idiot because I've been doing this since 2015 and nobody ever corrected me. The fluid was getting under the retaining ring and causing haze over time. Now I just breathe on the glass first and use a tiny amount of fluid on a folded cloth. Has anyone else wrecked a coating by being too generous with the cleaning solution?

Dropped a Rolleiflex shutter assembly and a guy talked me through the rebuild

I was working late at my bench in Portland last fall, trying to get a Rolleiflex 3.5E back together. My tweezers slipped and the whole shutter blade stack scattered across the floor. I was about to pack it in when an older guy named Frank called me from the shop next door. He heard me swear through the wall and came over with a magnifier and a few tricks for stacking those blades. Showed me how to use a piece of tape as a hinge guide, saved me from ordering new parts. Has anyone else had a random stranger bail them out of a jam like that?