c/camera-repairers

Had a weird shutter jam on a Pentax K1000 at a flea market last weekend

I was at the big swap meet in Burbank looking for parts cameras when this guy asked if I could look at his K1000 right there. The shutter was stuck halfway, and he'd already tried poking at it. I had my little toolkit in the car, so I got it out and took off the lens. Found a tiny piece of foam seal had broken off and wedged in the curtain track. Cleared it in about 5 minutes with some tweezers. Made me realize I should always carry my basic picks and probes, not just the big kit. Do you guys keep a small 'field repair' set on you?

2 comments

fiona_kim97•6h ago

Heard a client call their old camera 'just a box of memories' while I was fixing the light seals.

It made me remember that even a simple CLA on a basic point-and-shoot can save someone's vacation photos from 2003, which is a pretty good reason to keep at it.

0 comments

logan_wood•13h ago

TIL that a lot of old camera shutters used actual silk threads for the curtains

Honestly, I was fixing up a 1950s Kodak Retina IIc last week and the shutter was dragging. I figured it was just old grease, but when I got the front plate off, I saw the curtain material looked weird. Did some digging in an old repair manual I have, and it straight up said they used silk for its strength and light weight. I found a tiny tear near the edge, which explains the light leak on my test shots. It's wild to think they used fabric like that in a precision machine. I guess it worked for decades, but now finding a match for that specific weave is a whole other problem. Has anyone here ever had to source or replace a silk shutter curtain before?

4 comments

eva_moore•1d ago

Showerthought: a client called their old SLR a 'dumb camera' and it got me thinking

They meant it had no autofocus, but the way they said it felt like calling a hand tool 'dumb' because it doesn't do the work for you. I spent 45 minutes cleaning the mirror box on that 'dumb' Nikon FM2 and it's still more reliable than most new stuff. Anyone else get that vibe when folks dismiss the older mechanical gear?

c/camera-repairers

Had a weird shutter jam on a Pentax K1000 at a flea market last weekend

Heard a client call their old camera 'just a box of memories' while I was fixing the light seals.

TIL that a lot of old camera shutters used actual silk threads for the curtains

Showerthought: a client called their old SLR a 'dumb camera' and it got me thinking

Tried a new lubricant on a Leica M6 advance lever and it seized up overnight

Spent 3 days chasing a shutter squeak on a Nikon F3 that wasn't even there

Warning: The way people treat old film cameras has flipped in the last 5 years

My mentor told me to never use canned air on a shutter, and he was right.

Showerthought: I fixed a camera at a flea market and it changed my whole approach

Shoutout to the guy in Austin who showed me his ultrasonic cleaner setup

Vent: a customer brought in a Nikon F3 with a shutter that sounded like gravel

Pro tip: watch out for the tiny spring under the shutter speed dial on a 1970s Nikon F2, because I spent a frantic 45 minutes crawling around my shop floor in Seattle after it launched into orbit.

The way people handle old film cameras has really shifted

My uncle said to never trust the factory grease on a 40 year old lens, and he was dead right

Watch out for the new Fujifilm X-T5 shutter assembly

Rant: A Canon 5D mirror just gave up the ghost mid-shoot

Just got a 1972 Pentax Spotmatic back from the brink with a new cloth shutter curtain

Had a weird shutter bounce on a Pentax K1000 last week

Finally got that sticky shutter on a 1973 Pentax Spotmatic working after three evenings of cleaning the old lube off the curtain tracks.

A dusty old camera shop in Tucson taught me a trick for stuck lens mounts

PSA: My $40 investment in a proper lens spanner wrench finally let me fix a stuck zoom ring without stripping the threads.

A job in Seattle made me stop trusting factory shutter specs

Found a weird fix for sticky Minolta X-700 shutter curtains

I thought those cheap lens spanner wrenches from eBay were junk

Hit 50 repaired Pentax K1000s this week