c/camera-repairers

Had to choose between a $200 donor body or a new shutter assembly for a Canon AE-1. Went with the donor, saved a client $150.

I was at the antique market in Springfield last weekend and saw a guy selling a box of 'untested' Polaroid SX-70s for $50 each.

He had about eight of them, all pretty dusty. I asked if I could pop the hood on one, and he got really defensive, saying they were sold as-is. It made me wonder how many of those 'untested' cameras just need fresh batteries or a simple roller clean, and how many are truly bricked. What's the most common quick fix you've found on a camera someone else wrote off as junk?

Just realized my old boss in Seattle was right about one specific screwdriver

My first boss at the repair shop, Frank, always told me to use a JIS #2 driver for old Nikon F mirror box screws, never a Phillips. I thought it was just him being picky until I stripped a screw on a customer's F2 last month, turning a simple CLA into a real headache. Has anyone else run into this and found a good source for JIS drivers that won't break the bank?

Had a Minolta X-700 shutter curtain jam on me yesterday

The customer said it just stopped firing halfway through a roll. When I opened it up, the second curtain was stuck about a third of the way across. In my experience, it's often the magnet that gets gummy. I cleaned the magnet and its contact plate with some isopropyl on a q-tip, and that did the trick. The whole fix took maybe 20 minutes once I had it apart. Has anyone found a better cleaning solution for those old Minolta magnets that lasts longer?

Spent three hours chasing a 'broken' shutter on a Pentax K1000

Turns out the owner had jammed a single grain of sand from a beach shoot in Santa Monica into the film advance lever mechanism. It was so tiny I only spotted it under my bench magnifier after checking everything else twice. Has anyone else had a repair where the actual problem was something ridiculously small like that?

Was cleaning a 1978 Canon AE-1 and found the shutter curtain is made of titanium foil

Read it in the original service manual from my shelf. Anyone else run into unexpected materials in classic gear?

Unpopular opinion: I chose a $40 Chinese copy of a lens spanner over the $200 name-brand one.

The copy's tips were softer and marred a helicoid on a Contax G1, so now I'm out a part and the savings. Anyone have a source for good hardened steel spanner heads that won't break the bank?

I finally understood why they say to check the mirror box first after a job in Savannah

I was fixing a classic SLR for a customer at a little shop on Broughton Street. The shutter was sticking, and I spent an hour on the curtain mechanism. My boss walked over, popped the lens off, and pointed a flashlight inside. A tiny piece of foam from the old light seal had fallen into the mirror box and was jamming everything. He just said, 'Always look in the obvious place before you go deep.' Now I start every repair with a mirror box inspection. Anyone else have a simple step they ALWAYS do first that saves time?

I always thought using a toothpick for shutter blade cleaning was fine until a repair in Portland last month.

I was working on a Pentax MX and a tiny splinter from the wood got stuck in the mechanism, costing me an extra hour to fix. Now I only use plastic dental tools for that job, which I got from a local supply shop. What's your go-to tool for cleaning delicate shutter blades?

Talking to a museum archivist made me rethink my cleaning process

I was fixing a Pentax K1000 for a local history museum last week, and their archivist asked me what I used to clean the mirror box. When I said isopropyl alcohol, she told me they never use it on their old cameras because it can strip the thin coatings on mirrors and prisms over time. She showed me a Leica IIIf from their collection where someone had cleaned it too hard and the viewfinder was foggy. I've been using alcohol for years without thinking about it. Has anyone else switched to a different cleaner for vintage gear?

Tried fixing a sticky shutter with a drop of oil versus a proper clean. Guess which one worked.

Had a Pentax K1000 come in last month with a classic slow shutter. Customer said they'd put a tiny bit of sewing machine oil on the blades. The whole thing was a gummy mess. I spent two hours cleaning that off with pure isopropyl and cotton swabs. After a full disassembly and clean, it fired perfectly at all speeds. The oil trick just gums up everything in the long run. Anyone else have a 'quick fix' horror story that doubled your work?

Shoutout to the guy who told me to stop using canned air on shutter blades

I was cleaning a Nikon F3's shutter last month and an old timer at the swap meet said 'that stuff just pushes the grit deeper, use a soft brush and your own breath.' I tried it on a sticky Minolta X-700 and the curtain started moving smooth as butter in under five minutes. How many other 'standard' cleaning methods are we doing that actually make things worse?

Vent: A vintage Leica shutter spring went flying in my shop last Thursday

I was working on a 1954 Leica M3 in my home shop, trying to reset the slow speed escapement. The tiny tension spring for the 1/15th gear slipped from my tweezers and launched across the room. I spent the next two hours on my hands and knees with a magnet and a flashlight, finally finding it under the leg of my workbench. The whole repair was set back by a day, and I had to explain the delay to a very patient customer. Has anyone found a better method for containing these little parts besides just a clear plastic bag over the assembly?

My shop's repair turnaround went from 5 days to 2 after I stopped using canned air.

For years I blasted every lens assembly with the standard aerosol can, but dust kept coming back within a month. I switched to a proper air compressor with a moisture filter about six months ago, and the difference in long-term cleanliness is huge. Am I the only one who thinks canned air just pushes the problem around instead of fixing it?

Serious warning about those 'refurbished' parts from a certain online seller

I was chatting with a repairer from a shop in Portland, and he said he's seen three cameras this month with the same issue: a 'new' shutter assembly that failed after 200 shots. He told me, 'They're just cleaned returns with the same worn gears, not rebuilt.' It hit different because I almost bought one for a Nikon F3 job last week. Has anyone found a reliable source for actual new-old-stock parts lately?

Overheard a guy at the camera shop say he just throws away any camera with a sticky shutter

I was picking up a part in Portland and this customer was telling the clerk his old Canon AE-1 was trash because the shutter button felt slow. The clerk tried to explain it was probably just the foam seals turning to goo, a 20 minute fix. The guy wasn't having it. It made me realize how many perfectly good cameras get tossed over simple, cheap repairs. What's the most common 'junk' problem you see that's actually an easy fix?

That old trick for stuck lens barrels actually worked on a Minolta X-700

Had a Minolta X-700 come in with a 50mm lens that wouldn't budge, probably from old grease. I was about to start taking it apart, but remembered a story from a guy at a camera swap meet in Austin. He said to wrap a thick rubber band around the barrel for grip and gently twist while applying a hair dryer on low heat for about 30 seconds. I figured it was worth a shot before opening it up. The heat softened the grease just enough and the rubber gave me the grip to break it free without a scratch. Has anyone else had luck with this method on different models?

A customer in Seattle brought in a Leica M3 with a stuck shutter, and his story about it got me.

He said his dad bought it new in 1965 and shot his whole childhood with it, but it sat in a closet for 20 years after he passed. When I got the curtain moving again and that crisp 'snick' came back, he just went quiet for a minute. How do you guys handle jobs that feel more like fixing a memory than a mechanism?

Overheard a guy at the swap meet say 'if it's from the 70s, just toss the light meter, it's always wrong' and it made me think about all the perfectly good CdS cells I've probably replaced for no reason.

Now I'm second-guessing my whole process for diagnosing those older selenium meters, so has anyone found a reliable way to actually test them before condemning the part?

A 1980s Nikon FE shutter curtain finally gave out on me yesterday

It was a camera I've serviced for a local studio for about five years, and the old cloth just tore clean across. I had to order a donor body from an online auction to get the part, which set me back 75 dollars. What's your go-to source for vintage shutter curtains these days?

Serious question, has anyone else had a customer bring in a camera they tried to fix with glue?

A guy came into my shop in Austin last week with an old Nikon F3. He said the film advance lever was 'a bit stiff'. I opened it up and found the entire gear train packed with super glue. He admitted he saw a video online and thought it would 'hold things in place'. I spent three hours just cleaning that mess out with acetone and a dental pick. What's the worst DIY fix you've had to undo?

Tried fixing a stuck shutter on a 1978 Pentax with a drop of lighter fluid

I was working on this old Pentax K1000 that had a shutter curtain that wouldn't budge. Instead of taking the whole thing apart, I figured I'd try a tiny bit of lighter fluid on the pivot, like an old trick I'd heard about. It actually freed it up for about ten shots, then the whole curtain gummed up worse than before. I learned that quick fixes on old cameras can really backfire and make the proper clean-up job twice as hard. Anyone have a better method for freeing up old, sticky shutter mechanisms without causing more trouble?

Had a Nikon F3 come in with shutter capping, tried two different ways to fix the timing

First, I followed the old manual and just adjusted the first curtain spring tension. It ran okay for a day, then the problem came back. So I pulled the whole curtain assembly, cleaned the tracks with lighter fluid, and re-lubed the gear train with a tiny bit of Moebius 8000. That was the fix. The spring adjustment was a band-aid, but the real issue was old, sticky grease. Has anyone else found that a full clean beats a quick adjustment on these older metal shutters?

Overheard a guy at the parts counter talking about using a 1.5mm screwdriver for a specific shutter fix

I was picking up some lens spanners in Seattle last week and the person next to me was telling the clerk about a stuck leaf shutter on a Mamiya. He said he used a 1.5mm driver to adjust a tiny set screw behind the aperture ring, something the service manual didn't even mention. It made me realize how much of this job is learning from other people's small wins. Has anyone else found a weird little trick for a specific model that saved a repair?

Struggled with a sticky shutter on a Pentax K1000 for way too long

Everyone says it's a simple fix, but the second curtain brake pad had completely disintegrated and left gunk everywhere. It took me almost four hours just to clean the tracks and source a new pad from an old parts camera. Has anyone else found a better way to deal with that specific gunk issue?