The Design Community Hub

c/camera-repairers

7

wadeyoung•14h ago

Hit 200 shutter repairs last month and it broke my brain a little

Honestly, I never kept count before but my spreadsheet said I worked on 200 shutters in February. That number made me realize how many people are still shooting old film cameras and how few of us are left to fix them. Anybody else track their numbers and get surprised by the volume?

1

fiona_murray•2d ago

That one Tuesday where three old Rolleiflexes walked in the door

I had three Rolleiflex cameras come in for CLA work on the same Tuesday last month, which never happens around here (Portland). One was a 2.8F with a sticky focus that turned out to be a dried out helicoid grease, nothing major but it ate up my whole afternoon. Has anyone else had a weird streak of the same model showing up all at once?

16

ray210•3d ago

Threw $80 at a canon ae-1 light seal kit and it burned me bad

I was fixing up a Canon AE-1 for a buddy and figured I'd save time by buying a pre-cut light seal kit for $15 on eBay. The foam was too thick and the mirror box foam left sticky residue everywhere. Ended up spending 3 hours cleaning that mess and another $12 on compressed air to blow out the bits. I'm back to cutting my own from black craft foam sheets now. Anyone else find those kits more hassle than they're worth?

18

noahw53•5d ago

Rant: that guy who asked me to "just clean the sensor" then watched me the whole time

Had a customer bring in a Nikon D750 last month. Said it had dust spots. I quoted him $45 for a sensor clean. He stood there in my shop. Staring. Arms crossed. Asked if I used a wet or dry method. I explained it. Then he said "show me." Like I'm a circus act. I did it anyway. Took about 10 minutes. He nodded and left. Never paid. Said he'd "learned enough." Has anyone else had people treat your work like a free tutorial?

6

eric359•6d ago

Learned a weird lesson about lens fungus from a 1950s Kiev camera

Picked up a beat up Kiev 4 at a garage sale last month for $15. Figured it would be a fun project to clean up, maybe get it working. When I opened it up, the lens had this thick web of fungus inside, like someone left it in a damp basement for decades. I almost tossed the whole thing, but an old repair guide I found online mentioned something I never knew. Apparently, some Soviet era lenses used a type of lubricant that actually attracts fungus and holds moisture. That mineral oil they used back then just sits there waiting for spores. I spent two days carefully cleaning the glass with hydrogen peroxide and alcohol, and it actually cleared up better than I expected. The shutter still sticks, but the lens is usable now. Has anyone else run into weird lubricant issues with older cameras?

4

josephb35•7d ago

Got burned by a $40 eBay CLA kit for my old Pentax

I figured I'd save some cash and do a basic CLA on my Spotmatic myself last winter. The kit came with some random grease and a cheap spanner wrench that stripped out on the second turn. Ended up cracking the lens ring and had to send it to a real shop in Denver for $120 to fix my mess. Anyone else ever try a budget repair kit and regret it?

6

jackson.wesley•9d ago

Threw $200 at a used lens cleaning station from eBay and it paid off on one job

I was skeptical about dropping that kind of cash on a used ultrasonic cleaner, but after a client brought in a fungus-covered 50mm f/1.4, I got it sparkling in 15 minutes. That single repair fee covered the cost, anyone else find gear that makes back its price fast?

30

the_diana•10d ago

Hit 50 shutter repairs last month and finally figured out my foolproof trick

I do a lot of shutter repairs (the camera kind, not the window kind) and last month I hit 50 of them. That might not sound like a lot to some of you, but for a one man shop it was a big deal. What surprised me was how many of them came back because of sticky blades after I thought they were perfect. I started keeping a tiny spray bottle of isopropyl alcohol (91% works best for me) on my bench to give each shutter a quick spritz before I close it up. It helped me catch oil residue and dust I missed under my loupe. Has anyone else had 10 or more come back in a batch, or was I just unlucky on those early ones?

19

kai779•12d ago

DAE have to choose between CLA'ing a lens yourself vs sending it to a pro?

I just got a 50mm f1.4 with a stuck aperture ring and some haze. Doing the CLA myself would cost me maybe $15 in tools and an afternoon of cussing. Sending it to a pro shop in Chicago would run about $90 plus shipping and a 3 week wait. I went ahead and did it myself because I'm impatient and cheap, but now I got a tiny spec of dust I can't get out from between the elements. Has anyone else had a self repair go sideways and end up wishing they just paid the pro?

31

garcia.miles•13d ago

Shutter curtain disaster in a Pentax 6x7 yesterday

I was out in the backyard testing a Pentax 6x7 I just got in for a client, winding the film advance normally, and the shutter curtain just snapped mid-roll. It tore right at the bottom edge and now I have a wad of film jammed in the body. I spent an hour digging scraps out with tweezers and a flashlight. Anyone else deal with that curtain material getting brittle after sitting in a closet for decades?

2

rose_murray•14d ago

Shoutout to the guy who warned me about old Copal shutters

Had a 1960s leaf shutter freeze up on me mid-job last Tuesday in my shop. It was a Copal #1 from an old Mamiya press camera, and I found out the actuating ring was binding from dried grease. Has anyone else had these get sticky after sitting for years?

19

margaret_lane•15d ago

PSA: A cheap jeweler's loupe saved me from a bad shutter repair

I was working on a vintage Pentax Spotmatic where the shutter speeds felt off across the board. I spent three hours cleaning the mechanism with naphtha and tweaking the spring tension, but the 1/1000 speed still dragged like molasses. I was about to order a $200 shutter timing tester online when my buddy from the local camera club said to try a 10x jeweler's loupe instead. I grabbed one for $12 at a hobby shop and used it to really look at the escapement gears up close. Turns out there was a tiny burr on one tooth that was catching and slowing everything down. A quick file job and it was fixed. Has anyone else found a weird tool that worked way better than the expensive specialty stuff? I'm wondering what other cheap tricks are out there for diagnosing stubborn issues.

4

derekwalker•16d ago

Finally caught my own mistake with lens element spacing

Been repairing old manual glass for about three years now. For the longest time I kept getting soft images on one specific Takumar lens I fixed three separate times. Last Tuesday I read a post on a vintage lens forum about element seating. Turns out I was putting the rear group back in slightly rotated. Been doing it wrong for two years. Now I mark the barrel with a tiny scratch before disassembly. Has anyone else had a simple rotation issue mess up their rebuilds?

21

zara_allen•16d ago

That repair shop owner told me my shutter cleaning was too rough

Last Tuesday a seasoned repair guy in Brooklyn watched me work on a Nikon F2 and said I was scrubbing the shutter curtains like a dirty grill. He showed me his method of using a single drop of lighter fluid on a Q-tip, barely touching the cloth. Anyone else had to unlearn aggressive cleaning habits from their early days?

4

brown.susan•17d ago

Eating my words about ultrasonic cleaners for old lenses

I always thought ultrasonic cleaners were overkill for lens repair, figured warm water and a soft brush was all you needed. Last week I picked up a beat up 50mm f/1.4 from a pawn shop in Denver, had haze and some gunk between the elements. After 3 tries with manual cleaning I still had residue spots, so I finally caved and bought a $70 ultrasonic from Amazon. Put the glass elements in for 5 minutes at 40C with some lens cleaning solution, and holy cow it came out spotless. No scrubbing, no scratches, just clear glass. I learned that those little bubbles really do get into every tiny groove where brushes can't reach. Has anyone else had a rough lens turn out perfect after using one of these?

10

sandra146•17d ago

Wasted $200 on a cleaning kit that wrecked my old lens

Bought one of those all-in-one lens cleaning kits from Amazon, the one with the spray bottle and microfiber cloths. Used it on a vintage 50mm f1.4 I was cleaning up for a client, and the spray left some weird film that smeared across the glass. Tried to buff it out with the cloth, but it scratched the coating instead. Cost me $200 to replace the front element from a donor lens. Anyone else had bad luck with those cheap kits?

6

grant.kevin•17d ago

Just realized my lens cleaning routine was doing more harm than good

I used to blast sensor dust with those canned air duster cans, thinking I was saving time, until I cleaned a Nikon D850 last week and saw the residue smear across the filter instead of blowing off. Turns out I was spraying too close and the propellant was leaving a film that attracted even more junk inside. Any of you guys switched to a proper sensor swab kit and notice a big difference in how often you have to go back in?

24

kellyj23•18d ago

TIL cleaning a lens element with the wrong cloth can leave micro-scratches that show up more in direct sunlight vs soft diffused light

I got a used 50mm f1.4 lens from a thrift shop in Portland last month and the before photos under LED studio lights looked fine but after a sunny day test I saw haze and scratches I missed - is this a common oversight or did I just get unlucky with my inspection lighting, has anyone else dealt with this?

3

the_sage•19d ago

That old Rolleiflex from the estate sale taught me something new

I picked up a Rolleiflex 3.5F at an estate sale in Cleveland about 6 months ago. Found out the shutter speeds were off by a full stop, so I started digging into the leaf shutter mechanism for the first time in 20 years. It took me three tries to get the cleaning right because the old grease had turned to glue. Has anyone else found a way to soften that hardened gunk without damaging the blades?

11

cole_mitchell57•20d ago

PSA: My Canon AE-1 shutter finally locked up at a wedding shoot

I was shooting a friend's wedding last Saturday as a favor, and right in the middle of the ceremony my Canon AE-1 just stopped. The mirror locked up halfway and the shutter wouldn't fire at all. I had a backup body luckily, but it got me thinking about how these old cameras just give out at the worst times. When I got home I took the bottom plate off and found the magnet release had a bunch of old sticky grease on it. A tiny drop of lighter fluid and some careful cleaning got it working again, but it took me about an hour. Has anyone else had a similar failure with the AE-1 at a bad moment?

25

kai779•20d ago

Had a customer bring in a 1972 Canon F-1 that wouldn't advance film...

He said his dad shot the 1976 Olympics with it and it hadn't been touched since 1984. The shutter was completely seized but after 3 days of careful cleaning it clicked back to life - has anyone else gotten a special camera from someone's family history?

26

lily_sullivan82•21d ago

I finally figured out why my shutter curtain was sticking after a rainy shoot near St. Louis

Was cleaning a Canon AE-1 last week and found a crusty patch of mud inside the curtain track, guess the previous owner tried taking photos in a downpour. Has anyone else dealt with gunk in the curtain rails from bad weather?

10

the_sage•22d ago

The day a loose shutter curtain made me rethink everything at a estate sale in Portland

I was picking through a box of old cameras at an estate sale in Portland when I found a pristine Nikon F2 for $40. Turns out the shutter curtains were slightly off, which I didn't catch until I got home and ran a test roll. Do you guys do a full inspection on every bargain find, or just take the risk and hope for the best?

23

barbara429•24d ago

Had a week where every shutter I touched came back for a speed check

Last Tuesday I had three different customers come back with cameras I'd just repaired, all complaining the shutter speeds were off by a stop or more. But then Thursday I did a full CLA on a beat up Nikon F2 and it ran perfectly the first time I tested it. Anyone else ever have a week where the same problem keeps showing up and then suddenly nothing goes wrong?

22

mitchell.shane•24d ago

PSA: Found a stash of old shutter curtains at a estate sale in Portland

I went to this house clearance last weekend in the southeast part of Portland and dug through a pile of junk in the basement. There were like 15 sealed packs of silk shutter curtains for Mamiya and Graflex cameras from the 1950s. Has anyone else had luck finding NOS parts at estate sales or is it just me getting lucky?