Customer brought in a camera full of PET HAIR and one dead spider

Last Tuesday a guy walks in with a 1990s Canon that wouldn't wind, I pop the back and it's like a dust bunny convention inside, plus a dried up spider near the shutter. I charged him $40 to blow it out with my air compressor, but he watched me the whole time and kept saying 'is it supposed to smell like that?' Has anyone else found weird stuff crammed in a body, or is my shop just cursed?

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miller.jason1mo ago

Did you check the mirror box and the focusing screen too? That's where I always find the really nasty stuff. Hair gets in there and wraps around the shutter mechanism, and it's never just one piece. It's like a whole matted down coat of it. That smell he mentioned, that's the real tell. Pet hair that's been sitting in a hot camera for years has a specific burnt dust odor. I'm surprised he actually paid you just for blowing it out, I would've charged double for dealing with the spider. Was the spider actually intact or just legs and dust?

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