c/camera-repairers

Shutter curtain stuck on an old Pentax, now I have a new nickname

Saturday I had a Spotmatic on the bench and the cloth curtain just froze mid-travel, no warning at all. Turns out the previous owner had stored it in a damp garage in Tampa, and the ribbon glue turned into pancake syrup. Has anyone else gotten a mystery goo failure where the whole fix becomes a desoldering and glue scrape session?

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nancy_ross•3d ago

Overheard a guy say CLA wasn't his problem, got me thinking about scope

Was at a camera swap meet in Portland last Saturday and heard this older repair guy tell someone that 'CLA isn't the answer to everything, sometimes the problem is sitting in front of the camera.' He meant the owner, not the gear. Stuck with me because I've been on both sides of that fence. Half my jobs are legit mechanical fixes, shutter curtains, sticky apertures, that kind of thing. But a good chunk are just user error or people expecting a 1970s camera to behave like a digital body. Lately I've been wondering if we should push back more when someone brings in a perfectly good camera and just wants a CLA because they read online it's the magic fix. Charging $150 to $200 for a CLA that does nothing is easy money, but it feels dishonest after a while. On the other hand, turning work away when the shop is slow is a hard habit to break. How do you all handle the line between fixing what's broken versus selling peace of mind to someone who doesn't need it? Has anyone else started telling customers no on needless teardowns, or is that just me?

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ray_hernandez•8d ago

Talking to a retired repair guy in Tampa changed how I check shutters

He told me he never trusts the 'repaired' sticker, he always resets the shutter speed ring by hand and listens for the click. Now I do that on every CLA before handing it back, took like 30 seconds extra and caught two sticky blades last week. Anyone else got a weird habit they picked up from an old timer?

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troy832•9d ago

Met an old Minolta tech who changed my mind on fixed lens cameras

I had a conversation last month with a retired repair guy in Portland who worked on Minolta SLRs for 30 years. He told me he never saw a zoom lens from the 70s that was worth repairing, and it made me rethink how I approach old fixed lens cameras. I used to push customers toward zooms for convenience, but he showed me a 45mm f2 lens that still had sharp glass after 4 decades of use. Now I tell people to keep the prime lens and skip the zoom repair when the cost goes past $80. Has anyone else shifted their advice on this based on what older techs say?

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the_cameron•13d ago

Changed my tune on ultrasonic cleaning after a $80 mistake

I used to think ultrasonic cleaners were overkill for lens elements, basically a fancy toy for people with too much bench time. Then last month I ruined a 50mm front element using a hand swab and way too much pressure, left a scratch that cost me $80 to replace. A guy on the repair subreddit said 'the solution is agitation, not friction' and that line stuck with me. So I picked up a cheap 2-liter cleaner off Craigslist for $35, ran a test on a junk filter, and it lifted haze I couldn't get off with 10 passes by hand. Now I'm wondering if I should switch my whole cleaning process for vintage glass, how many of you run everything through the tank or still stick to manual for certain coatings?

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nathanj56•17d ago

Found an old Minolta with a dead meter, the fix was a 35 cent part

Picked up a beat up SRT-101 at a garage sale for $15 last Saturday. The shutter fired fine but the light meter was completely dead, so I figured it was the usual mercury battery issue. Opened it up and found the real culprit was a cracked solder joint on the meter coil wire, a tiny little thing. Reflowed it with my old Weller station and now the needle swings perfectly. Anyone else run into a dead meter that turned out to be a simple connection instead of the whole circuit?

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dixon.spencer•19d ago

A Rolleiflex shutter job taught me to check the film pressure plate first

Had a customer bring in a Rolleiflex last week with light leaks on every frame. I dug into the bellows, replaced the seals, still saw streaks. Turned out the pressure plate had a tiny burr lifting the film just enough. Sanded it flat with 2000 grit and that fixed it. Has anyone else burned time on bellows when the real issue was the plate?

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jessica_ross38•22d ago

That shop owner in Portland made me rethink how I clean old lenses

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dianal94•24d ago

Went to a camera show in Cleveland and saw way too many ruined leatherette jobs

Some guy was selling a 'mint' Nikon F2 with glue drips all over the vulcanite and a wrinkled skin patch like he used a heat gun. Is there a proper way to remove old leatherette without shredding the body, or do most folks just accept the mess?

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jamie_white•24d ago

Paid $120 for a 'factory' cleaning kit, now I'm split on whether it was worth it

The kit came with this special swab holder that supposedly prevents scratches, but after one use on a dusty sensor in my shop, I ended up doing a full wet clean anyway. Anyone else think those branded sensor kits are just overpriced versions of what we already have in the drawer?

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casey_harris•24d ago

Wasted 4 hours on a 'calibrated' lens from eBay, turns out the previous owner used a screwdriver

Bought a 50mm off eBay for $120. Listing said freshly calibrated. Got it in, focus was way off. Pulled the mount, someone had jammed a random screw into the helicoid lock. Took me 4 hours to undo the mess. Just buy from a shop you trust. Anyone else got horror stories from private sellers?

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elizabethhayes•26d ago

Had a chat with a retired Pentax tech that changed how I clean shutters

Met a guy at a camera swap meet in Portland last Saturday. He must be 75, worked on Pentax bodies for 35 years. I told him I use the standard blower and brush routine on shutter blades. He laughed and said he only uses a vac with a soft tip and never touches the blades unless they stick. Said brushes just push grit into the pivot points. I tried his method on a Spotmatic I was servicing that same day. First time I haven't had to re-clean a shutter after assembly. Made me wonder how many of my old repairs came back because I was over cleaning. Has anyone else switched away from brushes for a vac-only approach, or is he just old school in a way that only works on mechanical shutters?

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hall.nina•26d ago

Replaced a seized helicoid with a 3D printed one and it actually held up

My old 55mm macro lens had a helicoid that was totally frozen solid, way beyond what any solvent could fix. I was torn between paying 220 bucks for a used factory replacement or trying a printed nylon one from a guy on Etsy. I went with the printed part since the lens is just for my desk at this point, and after 200+ focus turns it's still smooth and solid. Has anyone else tried non-metal parts for budget repairs, or am I just asking for trouble down the road?

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butler.finley•27d ago

Hit 200 shutter repairs in a year, but is that actually a good number?

I keep a simple log on my workbench, just a spiral notebook. Last Friday I counted and realized I'd done 200 shutter repairs since January, mostly on old mechanical bodies. That felt like a big deal at first, but then I started wondering if it means I'm good or just that I'm taking on too much junk. Some of those were quick fixes, a bent blade or a sticky gear, but maybe 40 of them were real rebuilds where I had to shim and adjust everything. On the other hand, a friend in Portland says he only does about 80 a year and charges triple what I do, and his shop is booked out for months. So is the milestone about volume or about the quality of work you take in? I know I've gotten faster, but I'm not sure faster equals better. Has anyone else hit a number like this and questioned what it really says about their repair game?

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karen_west59•29d ago

Customer's complaint about my shutter speeds fixed my whole process

A regular in Lincoln said my CLA'd cameras still felt sluggish compared to his new one. I started timing every speed with my oscilloscope instead of just trusting the old calibration chart, now I catch sticky magnets before they fail. Has anyone else found a better routine for verifying the 1/1000th speeds?

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john_cooper•29d ago

A Tuesday that nearly wrecked my whole bench

I was replacing a shutter ribbon on a 1960s folder, the kind with those tiny screws, when my jeweler's screwdriver slipped and gouged the blade right across the aperture. Took me three tries to find the right replacement part online, and near 4 hours of shimming the new ribbon to get the tension just right. Anyone else ever had a simple repair turn into a full afternoon nightmare because of one bad slip like that?

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evan_burns95•1mo ago

Replacing a stuck shutter curtain on a Canon FTb, my way vs the book way

I had an FTb come in with the curtain bunching up at the top rail. The manual said to remove the whole mirror box assembly first, that's a 45 minute job just getting to the curtains. I tried it once and stripped a brass screw on the frame, that thing was locked in place. Instead I worked the curtain out through the back by carefully unsoldering the drum end, took about 20 minutes total and I didn't touch the mirror box. It's not the textbook method and it takes a steady hand with the soldering iron at 350 degrees, but it saved me a headache. Has anyone else worked around the official disassembly order on these old Canon bodies, or am I asking for trouble down the line?

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the_hayden•1mo ago

That Tuesday I got a 1987 Canon F-1 to fire again

Bench was packed with three broken shutter curtains and a stuck winder, then this mint F-1 walks in with a seized mirror mechanism. Took about 4 hours of cleaning old grease and swapping a spring from my parts bin to get it clicking smooth. Anyone else ever get a 40 year old camera back to life and feel like a wizard for the rest of the week?

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wright.lisa•1mo ago

Picked up a tip about sticky aperture blades from an old repair video

Honestly, was watching a 1980s repair reel from a guy in Cleveland about a Pentax K1000 and he mentioned using naphtha on stuck aperture blades, not oil. Tried it on a Yashica that came in with a slow shutter, worked way better than my usual cleaning routine. Anyone else use naphtha for this or stick to lighter fluid?

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nancy_ross•1mo ago

Wasted $200 on a 'professional' sensor cleaning kit

Bought one of those fancy sensor cleaning kits with the swabs and solution online, figured it'd pay for itself vs shop fees. Followed the video to the letter, did the wet clean on my 5D Mark III, and it left streaks all over the low-pass filter. Tried again with a fresh swab, made it worse, ended up mailing it to a shop for $85 to fix my mess. Anyone else had bad luck with those kits, or is it just my shaky hands?

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derekjenkins•1mo ago

Heard a repair guy say shutter counts are useless. I'm starting to buy it.

I always thought high shutter count meant a camera was near death. But then I read a test from a lab in Ohio showing a Nikon D800 still hitting 95% accuracy at 400,000 clicks, way past its rated life. How many of you actually check actuations before buying used gear anymore?

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hollyc92•1mo ago

That old camera shop on Elm Street had a shelf full of nothing but shutters

I stopped into Henderson's Cameras last Tuesday to grab some screwdrivers for a shutter job and noticed they had a whole shelf labeled 'Misc Shutters - $5 each' near the back. I spent 45 minutes digging through Compur, Prontor, and some off-brand shutters, found one that looked like it came off a 1940s folder that still fired at every speed. Has anyone else found a weird hidden stash like that in a local shop?

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robin_henderson81•1mo ago

Hit 500 shutter repairs this week... never tracked that before

I just counted back through my logs and realized I've done exactly 503 shutter curtain replacements since 2019. Mostly on old Pentax Spotmatics and Nikons. Has anyone else kept running totals on specific repairs?

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the_cameron•1mo ago

Bellows repair on a 60s folder went sideways on me last night

I was fixing up a Fujica 6x6 folder, trying to replace the bellows on it. Got halfway through the job and realized the new bellows I ordered from that guy on eBay were about 4mm too short. So I had to jam the front standard forward and now the lens doesn't lock in place right. Do you guys go custom bellows or just try to fix factory ones even when they're torn?

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briancarter•1mo ago

That guy at the camera swap who fixed my shutter with a toothpick

I was at a camera swap in Portland last spring, frustrated with a sticky shutter on an old Minolta. A retiree next to me just watched for a minute, then pulled out a toothpick and gently nudged a tiny gear. He said 'oil gummed it up, don't use WD40'. I was skeptical but he walked me through the whole thing right there on the table. He didn't charge me or try to sell anything, just talked about how he learned from his dad in the 70s. That five minute interaction changed my whole approach to cleaning shutters. Now I keep a box of toothpicks in my kit and always ask before using any solvent. Anyone else had a random stranger at a show teach them something simple like that?

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