28
Serious question, saw a big change in shutter bounce on an old Nikon F3 after cleaning the magnet
I had this F3 come in from a guy in Austin with a 1/1000th shutter speed that was off by almost a full stop... it was dragging bad. After I cleaned the magnet assembly and the armature with some proper solvent, the timing came right back to spec in under an hour. The before and after on the oscilloscope was night and day. Has anyone else found that a simple magnet clean fixes more weird speed issues than we think?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
the_lucas2mo ago
Ever wonder if the factory grease they used back then just turns into glue over the decades? Like @nathan_barnes said, it's the first check now. But I bet half the "worn out" shutter complaints are just that old grease seizing up the works. It's not always a part going bad, sometimes it's just gunk holding the magnet back from moving fast enough.
6
mason_knight18d ago
Dropped my jeweler's screwdriver into a customer's coffee once while trying to get at that magnet assembly on an F3. Had to fish it out with a pair of tweezers while the guy just stared at me. But yeah, that cleaning trick saved me from ordering a whole new electromagnet on a body that's probably seen more cigarette smoke than I have. The grease they used back then was basically industrial strength honey.
3