c/camera-repairers

That reflow advice from the old forum thread wrecked my shutter board

Someone on a 2018 repair thread swore that baking a flex cable at 200F for 10 minutes would fix intermittent shutter errors. Tried it on a Canon AE-1 Program last Tuesday and the ribbon delaminated on reassembly, now the meter stays dead. Anyone got a reliable way to source a replacement flex that doesn't cost half the camera's value?

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wood.faith•4d ago

Pro tip: Old Canon AE-1 light seals taught me to stop fearing foam replacement

A guy at the Portland repair meetup told me to use cotton swabs and isopropyl instead of the expensive kits, and after 3 bodies I finally get why. Has anyone else here found a cheaper trick that works better than the branded stuff?

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davis.noah•4d ago

That $90 hot shoe adapter I bought on a whim fixed a weird lens mount issue

I picked up a cheap third party hot shoe adapter off eBay for a Canon body that had a bent shoe, cost about 90 bucks with shipping. Took a chance on it since the factory part was backordered for two months, and it actually seated perfectly, no wobble at all. Has anyone else used these generic adapters for bent shoe repairs, or am I just lucky?

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williams.sage•5d ago

The $8 rubber cement I bought fixed a shutter I was about to scrap

Got a beat up Canonet GIII QL17 in from a yard sale last month. Shutter was dragging bad on slow speeds, like 1/30 was reading closer to a full second. I opened it up, cleaned the blades with lighter fluid, checked the escapement, everything looked fine to me. Reassembled it and it still dragged. I was ready to call it parts only. Then I remembered old guys on forums talking about the little fabric brake on the slow speed escapement, how the coating wears off and the action sticks. I didn't have any proper brake fluid or whatever they use. So I grabbed a brush and dabbed the tiniest bit of rubber cement from the craft store on the cloth strip, let it dry for 10 minutes, and put it back together. Night and day. Every speed from 1 to 1/8 is dead on now, at least by ear and the sound on my phone's slow mo. I don't know how long it'll last but it's been a week of daily firing and it's still perfect. Has anyone else tried weird household stuff as a substitute for the proper service goop? I'm wondering if I should redo it with the real stuff before I trust it for paying work, or just run it till it acts up again.

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hugoj12•6d ago

That $9 denatured alcohol trick for sticky shutters

Read a post in another group about using denatured alcohol to clean old shutter blades instead of lighter fluid. Tried it on a 1960s Agfa that sat in a garage for decades, worked way better than my usual method. Is there any reason not to use this stuff on leaf shutters long term?

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paige331•12d ago

My heat gun was cooking shutters and I never knew

No verbosity, just the honest story. That heat gun moment cost me a $45 lens but taught me more than any guide ever did.

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torres.thea•14d ago

Rant: Shutter curtain fell apart on a client's Leica in Portland

Was replacing light seals on an M3, screwing the baseplate back on when the shutter curtain just crinkled. Fabric split right at the take-up spool, no warning. Client was standing there watching, quoted them $120 for the seal job, now it's a $400 rebuild. Anyone else had old curtains fail just from touching them?

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skyler_jackson27•15d ago

Soap choice matters more than most techs admit

I see guys chase fancy ultrasonic solutions and proprietary mixes, but after running a full shop cleanup on 40 lenses last month, plain dish soap cut through haze better than the $60 stuff. The catch is rinsing with distilled water at the right temperature, everyone skips that step and blames the chemical. Has anyone actually pressure-tested their wash method side by side, or are we all just repeating what the parts catalog says?

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torres.thea•16d ago

Warning: that $15 lens wrench set from the flea market nearly ruined a 50mm

Last month I picked up a cheap lens wrench set at a swap meet in Portland, thinking it was fine for the occasional stubborn ring. Tried it on a Canon FD 50mm that had a stuck aperture ring, and the teeth slipped hard, gouging the retaining ring groove. Took me two hours with a jeweler's file and a rubber band trick to get the ring out without cracking the glass. Lesson learned: measure the pin diameter before you buy, even if it looks universal. Anyone else have a cheap tool do more harm than good on a customer's gear?

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joel_clark37•19d ago

The retired tech who told me to stop cleaning sensors with swabs

Last March I had a stubborn dust spot on a Canon 5D that would not budge. A retired repair tech from a shop in Portland told me to ditch the sensor swabs and use a simple rubber bulb blower first, then a dry brush if needed. I thought he was old school and out of touch, so I kept using wet swabs and made the spot worse by leaving a faint streak. After three tries and a $120 cleaning kit I finally listened to him. One pass with a blower and a static brush removed the dust in about four minutes. The streak was still there though, so I had to do a wet clean anyway, but now I always blow first before anything touches the glass. Have any of you had a senior tech give you advice that seemed outdated but actually saved you time in the end?

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michael669•19d ago

The flea market find that made me redo my shutter timing

Picked up a beat-up Petri 7s at a swap meet in Portland for $15 and its shutter was dragging badly. Comparing it to my Nikon made me realize my bench calibration was off by a full stop, so I re-did my whole process with a cheap LED light meter. Anyone else ever get humbled by a junker camera?

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parkerbrown•20d ago

That shutter curtain spring in a Canonet that fought me for 4 hours

Took on a QL17 GIII last weekend for a friend, just a sticky shutter curtain. Figured 45 minutes tops, ended up spending 4 hours chasing a spring that kept popping out every time I got the curtain back in place. Finally used a tiny dab of watch oil on the pivot and a homemade hook from a paperclip to seat it. Anyone else got a trick for those leaf shutter return springs or is it just a rite of passage?

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mia700•21d ago

The lens guy at the swap meet changed my take on CLA pricing

Talked to a retired tech at the Portland swap meet last Sunday. He said he charges $80 for a basic CLA, and I laughed at first. But he showed me his work, shims, grease, collimation, all done by feel. I always thought $150 was fair, now I see I was padding my own quote. He asked why I charge double for the same job, and I couldn't answer. That conversation made me look at my invoices different. Anyone else ever get schooled on cost by an old-timer?

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william_harris•21d ago

One week with three dead Pentax K1000 meters nearly broke me

Last Tuesday a guy brings in a K1000 with a dead meter. Simple fix, new battery contact, done. Then Thursday two more show up in the same day. Both had corroded battery compartments from people leaving alkalines in for years. Spent like 5 hours total cleaning contacts and resoldering wires. Made me realize how many of these cameras are still out there getting used. The meters are all the same basic circuit but each one has its own weird quirk. Anyone else notice a sudden flood of one specific model at their bench?

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gracec16•22d ago

Stuck screw on a Rolleiflex winding knob, 4 days of pain

Got a Rolleiflex in last Tuesday with a frozen winding knob, figured it was just dried grease. Turns out someone had glued the screw with red Loctite, so I spent 4 days trying heat, solvents, and a manual impact driver before it finally gave. Has anyone else found a reliable way to break red Loctite without wrecking the surrounding paint?

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sean_cooper58•22d ago

That sticky leaf shutter that ate my afternoon on a Mamiya 1000

Had a C330 come in yesterday with the leaf shutter sticking at 1/500, finally it just jammed wide open after the 4th test fire, so I pulled the whole lens cell apart and found a dried glob of grease on the blades that took 20 minutes of soaking in lighter fluid to clean off, has anyone else run into this buildup issue on the older Seiko shutters or is it just me?

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stellaperry•22d ago

That tiny magnet trick for lost screws caught me off guard

For the longest time I was using a magnetic parts tray for disassembly, but I kept losing the tiny screws from the top plate on this old Canonet. Then one day I set the screws down on the tray and they started jumping around because the tray was too strong for the size. That's when I realized I should just use a sheet of paper with a thin magnet taped underneath, so the pull is gentle enough to hold them in place without flinging them. I switched to that setup three weeks ago and I haven't lost a single screw since. The paper also lets me write notes on where each screw came from, which helps when I'm reassembling after a lunch break. Anyone else struggled with screws sticking to tweezers or disappearing into the carpet? What's your method for keeping track of the tiny ones?

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mark436•22d ago

Watch out for those shutter curtain springs on old Nikons

Went to a repair meetup in Portland last month and someone brought in a beat up F2 that had a snapped curtain spring. Three of us tried to fix it on the spot and every single one of us launched the spring across the room at least once. Those things are tiny and they fly like crazy. I always thought I had steady hands but that little sucker taught me otherwise. If you work on these old SLRs please get a magnetic parts tray and work inside a clear plastic bag. My buddy actually stepped on the spring and bent it beyond saving. That camera is now a parts donor because of a stupid mistake. Has anyone else had this happen or do you have a trick for keeping those springs under control?

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jennifer833•23d ago

Solder station vs. hot air rework, which do you reach for first now?

I used to grab my soldering iron for every flex cable repair, but after a bad ribbon connector job in 2022 that wrecked a sensor board, I switched to hot air for most flat cables. Now I only iron through-hole joints, and my success rate on reattaching those tiny connectors jumped way up. Anyone else made that switch, or do you still trust the iron for everything?

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davis.noah•24d ago

Wasted 80 bucks on a de-soldering station I barely use

Picked up that budget vacuum de-soldering station last month for a PCB job, but the suction is so weak it left bridges everywhere and I ended up using my braided wick like always. Anyone else got a tool that sounded great on paper but just sits on the bench now?

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emma_flores•29d ago

The Yashica shutter I fixed twice finally taught me to check the ribbon cable first

Spent 6 hours over two weeks rebuilding that same leaf shutter on an old Yashica Electro 35 G only to realize the intermittent firing issue was a cracked ribbon cable the whole time, so now I always pull the top cover and inspect the flex ribbon before touching any actuator, has anyone else chased a mechanical ghost that was actually electrical?

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oliverhernandez•1mo ago

Swapped my ultrasonic cleaner for a coffee pot and regretted it fast

After 12 years of using the same 2-liter ultrasonic tank, the transducer gave out on a Tuesday. I had a Rolleiflex shutter stuck with old grease and figured I could heat some cleaner in a cheap coffee maker I found at a thrift shop in Akron. The cleaner worked okay for about 4 minutes, then the heating element fused with the solvent and filled the garage with smoke. Now I'm back to hand-cleaning with naptha and a watchmaker's brush, which honestly takes just as long but smells less like burnt plastic. Anyone else tried a shortcut that blew up in their face, literally or otherwise?

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lindag33•1mo ago

Swapped my solvent tank for ultrasonic, wish I did it sooner

I used to hand-clean shutters with a brush and naphtha for 20 years. Last month I finally bought a used 2-liter ultrasonic cleaner for $180 off Craigslist. The difference in how fast the old sticky blades come clean is insane. I do a 5 minute cycle with a mild parts cleaner, then a rinse cycle. My hands also don't stink like solvent all day, that's a hidden bonus. Now I'm wondering if anyone else made the jump and what solution you run for brass gears. I'm testing a citrus-based one now but open to other ideas.

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the_ruby•1mo ago

My old brass burnisher finally gave up after 12 years

It was the one I inherited from my old boss in Chicago, and it just snapped clean in half last week while I was polishing a shutter blade. I ordered a new steel one online, but the feel is totally different, more aggressive on the edge. Has anyone else had trouble switching after using the same burnishing tool for that long?

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the_wendy•1mo ago

Stopped by a tiny repair shop in Portland last week and saw a guy fixing a 1960s Rolleiflex with a bent screwdriver

He was filing down the tip on a whetstone between turns, no bench gear at all. Has anyone else found old tools work better than the fancy repair kits?

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