c/camera-repairers

PSA: I dropped $150 on a specialized lens spanner wrench for a single repair and it was worth every penny.

Honestly, trying to get into that weird, tiny Canon FD mount without it would have taken me three hours and a lot of swearing, so has anyone else found a tool that saved their sanity on a one-off job?

Just realized a tiny drop of lighter fluid can free a seized aperture ring on old manual lenses

Had a Pentax 50mm f/1.7 come in last week, aperture was completely stuck. Tried the usual gentle pressure, but no go. Was about to start a full disassembly, but remembered an old-timer at a camera swap in Seattle mentioning naphtha. Put one tiny drop from a needle applicator at the base of the ring, worked it back and forth for a minute, and it loosened right up. Cleans the old grease without needing to take the whole thing apart. Anyone else have a go-to solvent for this kind of thing, or is there a better method I should try next time?

I spent 4 hours trying to fix a sticky shutter on a Nikon F3 and it was just a tiny piece of foam

The foam seal had degraded into a gummy mess right near the curtain mechanism. Has anyone else had a simple fix hide behind hours of disassembly on a classic body?

My mentor warned me about using generic lens spanner wrenches on vintage glass, and he was 100% right

Spent $80 on a set of JIS screwdrivers and it was the best money I ever wasted

I kept stripping screws on old Canon FD lenses, thinking I just had a bad Phillips set. Turns out they use Japanese Industrial Standard screws, which look almost the same but are different. The JIS drivers bit perfectly and saved three lens mounts I was ready to scrap. Anyone else run into this on vintage gear?

Just had a vintage Nikon F2 shutter curtain snap right in my hands

It happened yesterday while I was testing the slow speeds, and I had to order a new curtain from a supplier in Germany. Anyone have a good trick for aligning the new one without the factory jig?

Can we talk about the number of old film cameras still in use?

I was reading a repair log from a shop in Chicago and saw they serviced over 200 vintage film cameras last year. That's just one shop. It surprised me because I figured most people had moved on to digital by now. I guess there's a real demand for keeping these old mechanical things running. Has your shop seen a similar increase in film camera repairs?

Appreciation post: a vintage Nikon F2 shutter curtain gave me fits for two hours

The ribbon cable was frayed and I had to cannibalize a donor part from a junker body I keep around. Anyone have a better source for those specific cloth ribbons besides scavenging?

Cleaned my 100th lens haze this morning and the number hit me

I was working on an old Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 that came in from a local shop. The rear element had that classic white fungal haze. After I got the group apart and cleaned it, I marked the tally on my bench log. I've fixed exactly 100 hazy lenses now. It made me realize how much of this job is just patiently bringing old glass back to life, one fungus spot at a time. Anyone have a favorite solvent mix for really stubborn haze that won't come off with just alcohol?

I finally understood why people hate working on point-and-shoots after a job in Portland

I was at a camera swap meet in Portland last year, and a guy brought me a Kodak Star 35 that wouldn't advance the film. He said two other shops turned him down. I opened it up and found a broken plastic gear, a part you can't get anymore. I spent 4 hours making a new one from brass, and charged him $80. He was thrilled, but I lost money on my time. That day showed me these cheap cameras are repair traps, built to fail. Does anyone else just refuse these jobs now, or have you found a good source for those tiny plastic parts?

Had to choose between fixing a Canon AE-1 shutter or a Nikon F3 mirror box

A customer brought in both cameras from a garage sale in Portland, but only wanted to pay for one full repair. The AE-1 had a classic sticky shutter, while the F3 had a mirror that would not always return. I picked the F3 because I had a good used mirror box assembly on hand from a parts camera. It took about two hours to swap, and now it works perfectly. Has anyone else faced a similar choice between two classic bodies for a single job?

Showerthought: I used to think a good loupe was enough for lens cleaning, but a cheap USB microscope changed my whole process.

For the longest time, I cleaned lenses with just a 10x loupe and good light. It worked fine for basic dust and smudges. Then last month, a guy brought in an old Leica with haze I just couldn't see clearly. I borrowed a $60 USB microscope from a friend who fixes phones. Plugged it into my laptop, and wow. Suddenly I could see the tiny, greasy film spread across the inner element like a map. The loupe just showed a blur. With the scope, I could target my cleaning exactly and see when the haze was truly gone. It turned a two-hour guesswork job into a 45-minute sure thing. Now I'm wondering if I should just buy one for the shop. Do you all use magnification beyond a loupe for tricky internal cleaning, or is that overkill for most jobs?

Just had a vintage Leica M3 shutter curtain ribbon snap mid-reassembly in my home shop.

I was trying to get the tension just right, heard a tiny pop, and spent the next two hours under a loupe trying to source and fit a replacement from my parts bin, so has anyone found a reliable supplier for those specific silk ribbons besides the usual big names?

Can we talk about cheap generic shutter lubricant versus the proper stuff from a supplier like Micro-Tools?

I used the generic on a Contax repair and the shutter started dragging after a week, but the proper grease has held up for 6 months now. Has anyone found a good middle-ground supplier that doesn't cost a fortune?

Hot take: The quality of used camera parts has really gone down in the last five years.

I just finished a repair on a Nikon F3 where I had to source a replacement shutter curtain. I bought one from a seller I've used since 2019, and the new part felt flimsy compared to my old stock. The fabric weave was looser and the edge binding was sloppy. Back then, parts came from cameras that were just retired. Now, I think a lot of this stuff is coming from machines that were totally worn out and stripped. It took me two tries to get a curtain that would time right. Has anyone else noticed this drop in part quality, or am I just getting unlucky?

Tried a $40 ultrasonic cleaner from Harbor Freight for shutter assemblies, but my old-school manual cleaning kit still gets the job done better.

I was hoping to speed things up on a batch of old SLRs. The ultrasonic unit left a weird film on some blades and didn't touch the dried grease in the pivot points. Ended up redoing three of them with my basic set of heptane, rodico, and swabs. The extra 15 minutes of hands-on work per camera beats a re-do any day. Anyone else find that some new tools just don't live up to the hype for delicate work?

Visited a big camera store in Chicago and their repair counter setup made me question the whole 'open bench' trend.

Warning: that antique shop in Portland had a whole box of 'for parts' lenses with fungus issues

I was browsing an antique shop on 23rd Avenue last weekend and found a cardboard box labeled 'camera lenses, as is'. Every single one, about eight total, had serious fungus growth between the elements. The shop owner said they'd been stored in a damp basement for years. Has anyone had luck salvaging lenses that far gone, or is it always a lost cause?

Appreciation post: my old way of cleaning lens helicoids was a mess

For years I used a heavy grease on lens focus threads, which just attracted dust and got gritty fast. Last month I switched to a light synthetic grease from a kit I got at a shop in Portland, and the difference is huge. Lenses stay smooth for months now without needing another clean. What grease do you all use for this job?

Rant: I just learned how many tiny screws are in a basic film camera shutter assembly

I was taking apart an old Pentax K1000 for a clean and lube job yesterday. I've done this before, but this time I decided to actually count the screws as I removed them from the shutter mechanism alone. I stopped at 37. Thirty-seven separate screws just to hold the curtain assembly, timing gears, and springs in place! I found this out by laying them all out on my bench mat in little groups. It's wild to think about the precision and patience needed to assemble these things on a line back in the day. It really makes you respect the engineering, even in a 'simple' manual camera. Has anyone else ever done a count on a common model and been shocked by the part number?

Unpopular opinion: I think people are way too quick to replace the whole shutter assembly

I've been fixing cameras for about 8 years now, and I keep seeing this online. Someone gets a camera with a shutter error, and the immediate advice is to swap the whole unit. I just fixed a Nikon D750 last week where the 'stuck' shutter was just a tiny piece of grit in the magnet channel. A careful clean with some isopropyl and a cotton swab, and it fired perfectly. That's a $400 part they almost bought for a 10-minute fix. I know it's a delicate job, but half the time it's just a cleaning or a simple adjustment. Has anyone else found that a lot of shutter issues aren't actually mechanical failures?

Just hit 50 mirror box replacements on the same Nikon D600 model and the pattern is getting clear

I used to dread replacing old Canon AE-1 shutter curtains, but a $12 set of angled tweezers from a watch repair kit changed the game

I mean, I'd fight with the alignment for an hour, but now it's under 15 minutes. Anyone else find a simple tool that saved them on a common repair?

Finally got that sticky shutter on a 1972 Pentax Spotmatic working again

Had it on my bench in the shop all week, the second curtain was dragging bad. Tried cleaning the old grease first, no luck. Ended up having to make a tiny shim from a soda can to adjust the curtain tension, took about 3 hours total. Fired it a bunch of times and it sounds crisp now. Anyone else had to get creative with shims on old SLRs?

Pro tip: I stopped fighting with tiny screws on old rangefinders

For the longest time, I insisted on using my standard JIS screwdriver set for every repair, even on those tiny, delicate screws in 1960s rangefinder assemblies. I'd spend 20 minutes just trying to get the right grip, often rounding the heads a bit. Last month, a guy at a repair meetup in Portland showed me his set of magnetic tipped drivers from Wiha. He said, "You're making it hard on yourself for no reason." I bought the 1.4mm size, and the next time I worked on a Canonet, the screw came out on the first try. The magnet holds the screw so you don't drop it into the body. It seems so obvious now. What other simple tool swaps have saved you guys a ton of frustration?