c/camera-repairers

The customer who handed me a camera full of peanut butter

This guy walks into my shop in Akron last month with a Canon AE-1 that smelled like a PB&J sandwich exploded inside. He said he stored it in his lunchbox for 6 months "to keep it safe" and now the shutter sticks at 1/125. I opened the back and there was a dried smear of Skippy across the entire pressure plate and film rails. He argued with me for 10 minutes that peanut butter is a fine lubricant, then asked if I could just wipe it down with a paper towel. I charged him $80 for a full teardown and he still left a one star review saying I was scared of a little spread. Has anyone else gotten food inside a camera body from a customer's creative storage idea?

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leo612•5d ago

A repair shop owner in Austin said something that rattled me

Was dropping off a beat-up Canon AE-1 at this small shop off Lamar, and the owner, a guy named Ray who's been at it since the 80s, told me he doesn't even bother with full CLA jobs under $150 anymore. He said most folks just want the shutter unstuck and won't pay for the deep clean, so he offers a 'quick fix' at half price and sends them out the door. It made me question how I price my own work, I always go for the thorough route but maybe I'm pricing myself out of the casual crowd... Do you guys offer tiered repairs like that, or is it all or nothing?

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carr.gavin•9d ago

One week, three jammed shutters, all the same weird cause

Tuesday alone I had three different cameras come in with shutters stuck halfway, all film bodies from the late 70s. Turned out every single one had old foam light seals that had turned into sticky goo and crept onto the shutter blades. I spent most of the week cleaning that mess off with lighter fluid and a soft brush, and my fingers still smell like solvent. Has anyone else seen this exact foam breakdown pattern on that era of cameras, or am I just getting all the unlucky ones?

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vera_murphy•10d ago

The ultrasonic cleaner I swore off for years is now my favorite tool

After 12 years of hand-cleaning old lenses with cotton swabs and solvent, I bought a cheap 2-liter ultrasonic unit last month and it stripped decades of haze off a 1960s Takumar in 8 minutes, so has anyone else had one of these machines fail on brass or cemented groups?

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margareth48•10d ago

I finally fixed a shutter that 3 other shops refused to touch

Last month a guy walks into my shop with a 1968 Pentax Spotmatic that had a shutter stuck at 1/1000. Two shops in Portland said it needed a new curtain assembly, which is basically impossible to find. I spent 3 nights just watching the timing with a jeweler's loupe and realized the problem was a bent pivot pin, not the curtain. Cost me $4 in parts from a donor body I found on Craigslist and about 6 hours of careful filing. Now I'm wondering how many cameras get junked because nobody bothers to look past the obvious part. Has anyone else saved a body with a tiny mechanical fix like that?

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henry604•10d ago

Heat gun vs lighter for shrinking tubing, finally on team heat gun

Been fixing shutter ribbons for years now, always used a lighter to shrink the insulation on new wires. It worked fine, but last Tuesday I had a roll of film get jammed because a soldered joint was too bulky and the ribbon caught on it. A guy in the shop, Ron, said he never touched a lighter after one accidental flare melted a Pentax mirror box. He lent me his cheap 200 watt heat gun from Harbor Freight. Honestly, the difference is night and day. The gun shrinks the tube evenly, no scorch marks, and you can control the airflow so you don't blast heat into nearby plastic gears. I rebuilt a Yashica Electro 35 GT and the wiring fit like it was factory. I used to think heat guns were overkill, but now I'm convinced. Anyone else switch over and never look back? Or am I the only one who ruined a few parts learning this?

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julia_patel•12d ago

Picked the $40 helicoil kit over a $180 replacement mount

After snapping a lens mount screw on a Nikon F2 during a 30 minute rush job last Tuesday, I grabbed the cheap repair kit from the drawer instead of waiting for the new part, and the helicoil held perfectly through a full test roll, but now I'm wondering if anyone else trusts thread repair on older brass mounts or do you all just replace the whole thing?

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valh32•15d ago

Lost $45 on a 'factory refurbished' shutter assembly

Picked up a supposedly factory refurbished shutter for a Canon AE-1 off an auction site last month. The listing photos looked clean and the seller had good feedback, so I figured why not. Got it in, checked the speeds with my tester, and the 1/1000 was off by nearly a full stop, plus the curtains had a slight bounce. Tried to contact the seller and they ghosted me after one reply, so there went my $45 and a weekend of work. Anyone else have luck with third party shutter assemblies, or do you just bite the bullet and buy from the known parts dealers?

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rowan2•15d ago

An old camera club member changed how I look at shutter counts

Talked to a retired fellow at a camera swap meet in Des Moines who said he never once checked a shutter count on a film body, and it hit me that we obsess over numbers on digital gear that don't always tell the real story. He pointed to a beat-up Canon F-1 that had gone through 20 years of weddings and still ran smooth, so now I ask clients how the camera feels in hand before I even plug it into the computer. Any of you ever had a customer come in with a low shutter count but a broken mirror, and does that change your diagnosis approach?

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tarar27•17d ago

Overheard a guy say he uses WD-40 on shutters, had to walk away

Last week at a swap meet in Portland, this older repair guy tells a newbie that WD-40 works fine for sticky leaf shutters, and I nearly choked on my coffee. I've seen that stuff gum up a Compur shutter beyond saving, and then the customer blames you for the mess. Am I the only one who thinks basic lighter fluid or naptha should be the only thing near those blades, or is this more common than I give it credit for?

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jakeb25•21d ago

My whole view on CLA vs replacement flipped after a $40 find

Last month I grabbed a beat-up Canon FD 50mm for $40 at a garage sale in Tulsa, figured I'd practice a full tear down and CLA it. Three days of work later it still had a sticky aperture, and I nearly tossed it until a retired repair guy told me to check the aperture ring ball bearing first, that thing was half worn down, replacing it cost me $0.31 and fixed everything. Anyone else ever sink hours into a deep clean when the real issue was a tiny mechanical part?

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victorb74•21d ago

That Tuesday three shutter repairs came in at once, two needed parts I didn't have

Last month in Portland, I had three Contax T2 shutters hit my bench on the same day. One was a simple magnet reset, but the other two needed replacement blades and I only had one set in stock. The owner of the second camera drove 40 miles to pick it up early and I had to call and stall him. I'm ordering two more blade sets now, but has anyone else had a run like that where parts availability cost you a rush job?

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ellis.hayden•22d ago

Yashica shutter curtain jammed on a job site, what's your go to fix?

I was repairing a Yashica Electro 35 for a client in Portland last Tuesday when the shutter curtain got stuck halfway during a test fire. Turns out a tiny piece of foam from the light seal had peeled off and wedged itself under the curtain track. I used a thin brass probe and some canned air to clear it, but I'm wondering if anyone else has a more solid way to keep old foam bits from causing this.

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paige427•25d ago

I finally tried JIS screwdrivers on old Japanese cameras

For years I was using regular Phillips heads on old Nikons and Canons and just fighting the screws the whole time. Last month I picked up a set of Vessel JIS drivers for like 25 bucks. First time I used one on a stuck screw on a 1972 Nikkormat it came out without any cam-out or damage. Why did nobody tell me these were a completely different standard? Has anyone else ruined screws before switching?

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troythompson•25d ago

Hit 500 shutter repairs last week and never thought I'd make it that far

Started keeping a tally just for fun when I fixed my first Canon AE-1 in 2019 and now I'm staring at a stack of 500 little hash marks wondering if I should actually count the ones that broke again after I worked on them. Anyone else keep a running count of their repairs or am I just weird about this?

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jordang32•26d ago

That moment I realized I'd been cleaning sensor contacts all wrong for years

I was working on a Nikon D610 that had intermittent AF issues, and I'd already cleaned the contacts with isopropyl alcohol like 3 times with no fix. A buddy of mine who used to work at a Canon repair center walked in and watched me for a minute. He told me I was using the wrong side of the q-tip and probably pushing dirt deeper into the crevices instead of lifting it out. He showed me this trick where you use a tiny bit of DeoxIT on the tip and drag it in one direction only, not back and forth. I swapped out the old lube on the lens mount too while I was at it. Fixed the camera right up after that one pass. Made me wonder how many other cameras I've just been guessing at instead of actually fixing. Any of you guys have a go-to method for cleaning those little gold pins that actually works every time?

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lilyg83•26d ago

Spent 6 hours fixing a jammed shutter on a Pentax K1000 - ended up being a bent screw

I got this old Pentax K1000 in last Tuesday. Shutter was stuck halfway and I figured it was just dirty curtains. Tore it down, cleaned everything, put it back together - still jammed. Wasted almost a full afternoon before I noticed one of the little screws holding the mirror box was bent just enough to catch the mechanism. Swapped it out for a new screw and it fired perfect. Anyone else ever had a tiny part like that totally waste your time?

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elizabethn56•28d ago

Old timer told me to never use compressed air on shutters - I had to learn the hard way

Back in 2019 I was cleaning a Canon AE-1 at my bench in Austin and figured a quick blast of air would save time. Blew a shutter blade right off its pivot pin and spent 3 hours fishing for it with tweezers under a magnifier. Anyone else got a tip someone gave you that you wish you'd listened to sooner?

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hill.andrew•29d ago

TIL that cleaning a lens with just a microfiber cloth vs a proper cleaning solution made a huge difference on a Zeiss 50mm I had

I spent 6 months using a dry cloth on this lens and saw no real change, but after one proper cleaning with Eclipse fluid and Pec Pads last week the haze and smudges finally lifted how it should look - has anyone else found dry wiping just pushes grease around?

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martin.paige•1mo ago

Tried to fix a shutter on a Pentax K1000 and ended up with 15 extra parts

Picked up a beat up K1000 at a garage sale in Portland last Saturday for $10. Shutter was stuck open, so I figured I'd take a crack at it. Now I've got springs and screws scattered across my bench and I can't figure out which of these brass bits goes where. Anyone got a diagram for the shutter assembly on these things?

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james_kim•1mo ago

Just overheard someone say 'you don't fix old cameras, you just make them worse'

I was at a diner in Boise last week and this older guy at the next table was telling his friend that any camera from the 70s or earlier is basically junk once the shutter starts sticking. He said trying to fix them is like 'polishing a turd' which I thought was pretty harsh. Idk, I've had pretty good luck bringing a couple of old Pentax Spotmatics back to life with just some new light seals and a CLA. Has anyone else run into that attitude from people who think old cameras aren't worth the effort?

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rowan2•1mo ago

I finally fixed a shutter squeak with a drop of sewing machine oil

I was working on a Pentax K1000 at my shop in Austin last Tuesday and that squeaky shutter was driving me nuts. After three tries with different lubricants, I just used a tiny drop of Singer oil on the pivot point and it stopped instantly. Has anyone else found a weird hack like this that saved a repair job?

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logan705•1mo ago

Tried fixing a shutter with a hair dryer and it actually worked... sort of

This is going to sound dumb but I had this old Nikon FE that the shutter was sticking on at slow speeds. Like 1/30 and below it would hang open for a second then close real slow. I couldn't get the thing apart without the proper jig and I was just about to give up on it. Then I remembered reading somewhere that old grease can get gummy in cold weather. So I grabbed my wife's hair dryer and hit the shutter mechanism area for like 2 minutes on low heat. Sure enough after it warmed up the shutter fired perfectly at every speed for about an hour. Then it cooled down and went right back to sticking. So I guess the lesson is if you're in a pinch and the camera just needs to work for a short shoot you can fake it with heat. But for a real fix you gotta tear it down and replace the grease. Has anyone else found a temporary hack like that that got a camera through one last job?

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oscarb77•1mo ago

Heard a guy at the junk shop say shutter speeds are like oven temperatures, and it totally changed how I test old cameras.

He was talking about how a few degrees off doesn't ruin the roast, just like 1/125th at 1/100th still gives you a usable negative, so now I focus more on the mechanical feel getting consistent instead of chasing perfect numbers, anyone else relax their standards a little?

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felix824•1mo ago

Just realized I was cleaning lenses wrong for 8 years

I always used a lens pen in a circular motion cause that's what felt natural. Last month a repair guy in Portland named Dave watched me do it and said I was just grinding dirt into the coating. He showed me a Leica 50mm f2 that had micro scratches from someone doing the exact same thing. Has anyone else had a routine technique that turned out to be bad for the gear?

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