Unpopular opinion: stop buying those ultrasonic cleaner kits off Amazon

I was at a camera swap meet in Portland last March when a guy showed me a Yashica he'd put through one of those $60 ultrasonic cleaners. The lens looked fine but the shutter mechanism was completely locked up from solvent damage. I've seen three more cameras come in this month alone with the same issue from those cheap units. The problem is the frequency and temperature aren't adjustable so you end up rattling delicate parts loose or warping plastic. For $200 you can get a proper refurbished lab grade unit that won't destroy your work. Has anyone else found a better alternative for cleaning shutter blades without risking the whole camera?

3 comments

3 Comments

morganmartinez2d ago

Gotta push back on one thing here - it's not always the frequency or temp that's the main issue with those cheap units. The real killer is the cavitation itself. Those $60 Amazon ones vibrate at a single frequency and the ultrasonic waves create hot spots that can actually pit or erode delicate metal parts over time, especially on older brass shutter blades. I've seen it happen to a Nikon F2 where the blades looked fine at first but developed a weird cloudy haze after a few cleanings. If you're going cheap, the better move is to just use a plain old clean microfiber cloth with a tiny bit of Ronsonol lighter fluid (naphtha) on a q-tip for shutter blades. It evaporates clean and won't soak into anything you don't want it to. Sure, it takes more patience than dropping a camera in a tank, but it beats turning your gear into a paperweight.

jordan_henderson132d ago

Nah you're right, never thought about the cavitation thing like that lol.

jenny_lee2d ago

Morgan, that actually reminds me of something I saw a few years back with a Canonet QL17. A friend of mine used one of those cheap ultrasonic cleaners on it maybe three times, and after a while the shutter timing just went completely off. He took it to a repair guy who told him the cavitation had actually loosened some of the tiny screws inside the lens assembly. @jordan_henderson13 you might find this interesting too, because it was the same idea about how violent those bubbles can be in a closed space. The repair guy said those cleaners are fine for your jewelry or eyeglasses but they are not made for the delicate parts in a camera. I think people forget that a vintage camera has fifty years of grease and dust that gets all mixed up by those ultrasonic waves, not just cleaned off.