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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?
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val_williams19d ago
That soda can shim trick is a classic fix. Had a Nikon F with the same dragging curtain issue last year. Ended up cutting a thin strip from a brass feeler gauge and bending it just right. Took a lot of test fires to get the tension perfect, but it's still running smooth. Sometimes you just have to improvise with what's on the bench.
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taylorc4019d ago
Saw a guy on a forum use a piece of aluminum from a takeout container for a similar fix. Honestly, the weird stuff that ends up working is half the fun.
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emery_white19d ago
Three hours for a soda can shim, is the camera even worth that much now? Seems like a lot of work for a machine that just makes pictures. Maybe some fixes are more about the win than the gear.
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