It has been a while since we did a recap of our repairs on our desk, so here we go! These are the repairs we have done in the past week.

DISCLAIMER: these posts are not intended to be a how-to on repairs. We recommend  booking a repair or service in with us , rather than taking apart your beloved camera and risking further damage.

The first repair on our desk this week was a Canon FD 50mm f/1.8 lens. This lens is the common lens used on Canon FD mount cameras, such as the Canon AE-1 Program.

A common issue with any vintage lens is oily aperture blades. As grease in the helicoid begins to separate, oil will spread through the lens and end up on the aperture blades. 

Oily aperture blades will cause your aperture to close slowly or not close at all. This issue means your images may be over-exposed as the aperture is not closing far enough. 

Cleaning oily aperture blades requires removing the entire aperture assembly from the lens. Just cleaning the visible part of the aperture blades will not work as the oil is picked up from the edges of the aperture mechanism, which are not visible without removing the assembly.

Once the aperture blades have been removed, cleaned and reassembled, the aperture mechanism will move freely, quickly and as expected.

The second repair on our repair desk this week was a full service on the Pentax ME Super. This is a service that we do very frequently as we service all of the Pentax ME Super cameras that we sell on our website.

One of the underrated and often most time consuming parts of a full service is the cleaning of the camera internally and externally. To effectively clean external parts, parts often need to be removed. A good example of this is the mode dial on the Pentax ME Super as dirt often gets trapped underneath.

Similarly, there are many light seals inside the Pentax ME Super than can only be accessed by full disassembly of the camera. Left alone, these light seals disintegrate and add dirt to the internal mechanisms of the camera.

Cleaning inside vintage 35mm film cameras is majorly important. Many cameras have not been serviced in their lifetime, which means most of them have 20+ years of dirt, dust and debris inside.

A great example of this is underneath this shutter speed dial of the Canon AE-1. This is a common place for dirt to accumulate as it is a heavily used area of the camera. Below is a before and after cleaning of the shutter speed dial area.

Another common repair that we had on our desk this week was the advancing cog inside the Olympus AF-10. These cogs sometimes break from too much tension in the film chamber. The cog can be replaced with a spare part from another Olympus AF-10 camera.

The images below show the broken cog on the left and the new replacement cog on the right. The broken cog has been stripped of many of its teeth, which were also loose inside the body of the camera.

Another very common cog repair is the Olympus Trip 35 winding cog. This cog splits when there is too much pressure when winding the film. This often happens if you are forcing the winding cog at the end of your roll of film.

If your Olympus Trip 35 has a broken winding cog, you may be experiencing film not winding fully. The advance wheel may also feel stiff at some points and that it is hard to turn.

This plastic cog is replaced with a brand new brass replacement cog, that will not wear or break over time. Many of the Olympus Trip 35 cameras we sell have this upgraded cog inside.

The Olympus Trip also often has aperture blade issues from the camera not being serviced. This example below shows rusted blades inside the camera. These were taken out and replaced.

Aperture blade cleaning is part of a full Olympus Trip 35 service and this is a service that we offer for our customers. All of the Olympus Trip 35 cameras we sell are fully serviced.

The shutter in this Olympus Trip 35 was overwhelmed with oil from the helicoid of the lens. This oil was all removed and all the parts were ultra-sonically cleaned. This ensures that the parts are all completely oil and grease-free.

Our next repair was a cleaning and light seal replacement in the Canon F-1 eye-level viewfinder. The seals definitely needed replacing as there was black debris throughout the viewfinder glass that was causing obstruction in the viewfinder.

Removing the degraded light seals is a time-consuming job as the seals often break off into many dusty pieces. This is why it is important to fully disassemble the part of the camera you are replacing the seals in. 

The new seals are Japanese camera light seal materials that will not degrade over time.

We work on a wide range of 35mm film cameras and accessories. If you have concerns about your camera or are looking for it to be fully serviced, get in touch with us.

Read more of our repair posts here:

If you like what we do, but can't buy a camera from us, please consider buying us a cup of coffee! It helps us to keep these resources free, consistent, and accessible.