That old repair manual trick actually saved my bacon on a Canon AE-1

I had this beat up Canon AE-1 come in last week with a stuck mirror. The usual fixes werent working, shutter was acting weird too. I remembered an old repair guy named Pete at a camera swap meet in Des Moines told me to check the foam around the mirror box before touching anything else. I thought nah, cant be that simple. But I gave it a shot and sure enough the foam had turned to sticky goo and was grabbing the mirror mechanism. Cleaned it all out with some isopropyl and a toothpick, replaced the foam strips, and the camera works like new now. Cost me maybe $3 in foam and 45 minutes of work. Has anyone else run into issues where bad foam causes problems that look way more serious? I feel like I need to check that first on every old SLR now.

2 comments

2 Comments

bailey.xena17d ago

That sticky foam goo got me on a Pentax K1000 once too.

faithrodriguez17d ago

Man, that goo is the absolute worst. I remember finding my dad's old Pentax K1000 in a box, all excited to shoot some film, and then I opened the back and it was like a horror movie. The foam had melted into this sticky, black tar that was all over the mirror and the seals. I spent like an hour with Q-tips and rubbing alcohol trying to clean it off, and even then I think I got some little specks on a few rolls. It's such a bummer because it's a legendary camera, but that stuff just ruins the experience if you don't catch it fast. Totally feel your pain on that one, it's a rite of passage for anyone who finds an old one of those.