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I finally compared ultrasonic cleaning vs hand cleaning for rangefinder parts
Spent about 6 years cleaning rangefinder parts by hand with q-tips and alcohol. Last month I borrowed a friend's ultrasonic cleaner for a sticky shutter job on a Canonet. Ran the parts for 3 minutes in a mild solution. Came out cleaner than anything I ever did by hand. The difference was night and day. Has anyone else switched and not looked back?
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paige1667d ago
Yeah, I used one for my old Nikon lenses and the difference was insane.
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noahgreen7d ago
Got one for my old Canon lenses too, @paige166, and suddenly I felt like a real photographer instead of someone who just points and shoots at their cat.
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Man, that's the truth. I was skeptical too at first, but once I ran a set of shutter blades from a beat-up Olympus 35RC through my cleaner, I never went back. The gunk that comes out of the little pivot points and between the leaves is unreal, stuff you can never reach with a q-tip without taking the whole thing apart further. @noahgreen mentioned lenses, but for the sticky shutter issue specifically, you gotta be careful with the solution strength and time. I found 2-3 minutes in a jewelry cleaning solution with a little distilled water works perfect, anything over 5 minutes and you risk messing with the lubricants you actually want to keep in place on the winding mechanism.
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