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Just learned that most shutter lubricants dry out after 5 years no matter what
I was cleaning a old Canon AE-1 last week and looked up the manufacturer spec for the lubricant. Turns out most of them start to break down after 5 years even if the camera sits unused in a drawer. Found this in a repair manual from a shop in Portland. Has anyone else noticed this with older cameras they work on?
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john64820d ago
Oh, good, another person who fell for the "lubricant shelf life" myth. Actually, most shutter lubricants don't "dry out" - they get tacky and turn into a gummy mess after a few years. I've got a Minolta SRT-101 from 1973 that still had perfectly fluid grease on its shutter mechanism when I opened it up last month. The real issue is that different brands used different formulas, and a lot of them degrade based on temperature and humidity, not just time. Those Portland shop manuals are great but they're not the final word on the subject.
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amymiller20d ago
Have you ever seen what happens when a friend tries to fix their dad's old camera and the grease turns into cement?
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