That one stubborn shutter button that took me 6 hours

I had a Canon A-1 come in last week with a shutter that wouldn't fire. Felt like a simple fix, maybe a sticky magnet or a dead battery connection. I spent the first 2 hours checking all the usual spots, cleaning contacts, testing the solenoid. Nothing worked. Turned out the problem was a tiny piece of foam from the light seals that had broken off and jammed itself right under the main shutter release lever. I must have looked at that lever a dozen times before I finally spotted it with a bright desk lamp and a magnifier. Took maybe 2 minutes to pick it out after that. Has anyone else spent way too long chasing a problem that was basically a piece of trash in the way?

3 comments

3 Comments

sam_anderson1mo ago

Ran into something similar with an old Pentax Spotmatic a few years back. Spent a whole Saturday going through the wiring and checking the timing gears, even pulled the whole top plate off. Turned out a tiny bit of corrosion from a battery leak had flaked off and was sitting on the contact pad underneath the advance lever. Two seconds with a toothpick fixed it. Makes you feel both brilliant and foolish at the same time when you finally find it.

colemartinez1mo ago

Did you check the light meter first or jump straight into the gears?

lane.drew17d ago

Are you sure it was really that simple? I’ve had batteries leak in gear before and that crust is usually super fine and powdery, not something that flakes off as a solid piece that sits on a contact. Plus, if you had the top plate off, you would’ve seen any corrosion or dust down there right away before you even started checking the wiring. I feel like you might’ve just gotten lucky and bumped a loose wire back into place by messing with it, and the corrosion was just a coincidence.