daniel_martin•1d agoRising Star

Old repair guy told me to never oil the shutter blades - glad I ignored him

I was fixing up an old Pentax Spotmatic last month and a retired repair guy at a camera swap meet told me never to put any oil near the shutter blades. Said it would gum them up for sure. But I had this one that was dragging at slow speeds, like 1/15 just felt sticky. I figured I'd try a tiny drop of naphtha-based oil on the pivot points, no where near the actual blades. Worked perfect, speeds are all snappy now. Has anyone else had good luck with a super light oil on old leaf shutters?

2 comments

2 Comments

blair_martin1d ago

You put naphtha on a vintage Pentax? That's absolutely insane.

lily701d ago

Nah that old guy's advice is super outdated. I had a similar thing with a Compur shutter on an old Zeiss Ikon where the slow speeds were just dead. A single tiny drop of clock oil on the main pivot arm, not the blades themselves, brought 1/2 second back to life. The problem is people think oil means dumping it everywhere, but a pinhead-sized amount on the right spot is totally different. Repair guys from that era were paranoid because they saw too many wrecked shutters from people using sewing machine oil or wd40, which do turn into glue. Naphtha based stuff is the way to go, it stays thin and doesn't harden up over time. Your Spotmatic is fine, those cloth curtains are tough.