Best week I had repairing a beat-up Nikon F3 from the 80s

Last Wednesday a guy brought in an F3 that looked like it fell off a truck, but the shutter was stuck at 1/2000. I soaked the curtain mechanism in lighter fluid and worked it loose, and after a CLA it runs like new again. Anyone else ever fixed a sticky shutter with just a drop of naphtha?

2 comments

2 Comments

jake_hall8821d ago

Lighter fluid is a classic trick for freeing up old gummed shutters, but I bet most people don't realize you can also use it to clean the contacts on the F3's electronic shutter. That camera has a lot of those tiny gold pins inside the body that get dirty over time. A little naphtha on a Q-tip wiped across them can fix weird meter issues without taking anything apart. Just make sure to let it fully evaporate before you put a battery in, or you might get a nice spark show.

xena_rivera6321d ago

Hold up, I gotta push back a little on the F3's contacts. The gold pins you're talking about, those are actually for the finder system and the aperture readout, not the electronic shutter itself. The F3's shutter is mechanically controlled, you know, the vertical-travel metal blades are timed by a quartz oscillator but the actual release is still a physical button and lever setup. The real issue with weird meter readings is usually the contacts between the body and the finder, especially on the HP or DE-2 finders where those little copper strips get grimy. I've cleaned mine with Q-tips and lighter fluid too, works great, but it's the finder interface, not the shutter pins.