That time I laughed at a guy using canned air on a sensor... then it actually worked

I was fixing a Nikon D750 at a bench in Austin last fall and this older guy swore blowing canned air on the AF sensor would fix a backfocus issue. I thought he was pulling my leg, but he showed me a 10-year-old thread from some forum and I figured why not. Has anyone else had a cheap fix like that actually save a repair?

3 comments

3 Comments

rodriguez.diana14d ago

Bet it was just placebo or coincidence, not the canned air fixing anything. People love finding patterns where there aren't any.

the_sam13d agoMost Upvoted

Funny enough, that happens more than people think. Rod's comment about placebos makes sense on paper, but half the time our 'high tech' solutions just ignore the simple stuff. I've seen car guys fix a misfire by just tightening a gas cap, and a friend's TV remote worked again after he smacked it on the couch. It's like we overthink everything until something dumb proves us wrong. Maybe the real fix is just accepting that sometimes life isn't as complicated as we make it.

sam1713d ago

And that gas cap trick worked because the computer was just seeing a vacuum leak, same as how dust on a sensor messes with the camera's brain.