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?
Saw a camera repair video years ago where the guy said using lens cleaner on the mirror box foam can make it turn into a sticky goo. He said just a dry cotton swab is better for that. Makes you wonder what else we're doing wrong.
But sometimes you have to wonder if it's all that bad. I've used canned air for years without a problem, and @oliver_torres4's mirror foam thing sounds like a very specific chemical reaction. Maybe some methods are just riskier on certain old materials.