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?

2 comments

2 Comments

oliver_torres410d ago

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.

the_nina10d ago

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.