TIL the old trick of using a sewing needle to unclog a sticky shutter blade on a Yashica-Mat actually works

I had this Yashica-Mat from the 70s where the shutter blades were sticking at slow speeds, tried blowing it out with canned air and nothing helped. Finally took a fine sewing needle, dipped it in lighter fluid, and very gently worked it around the edges of the blades to break up the old gunk and now it fires clean at every speed. Anyone else got a weird hack for getting oil off shutter mechanisms without taking the whole lens apart?

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barbaragarcia2d ago

Oh man, I feel your pain with that sticky shutter business. That lighter fluid trick is a lifesaver, I did the same thing on an old Pentax Spotmatic where the blades were all slow and laggy at the slower speeds. It's such a delicate thing though, you have to go really slow and not force anything or you'll bend the blades.