Old timer told me to stop using canned air on shutters, I didn't listen

Blew a set of Copal shutter blades clean out of alignment on a 50mm f/1.4 Nikkor last Tuesday. Has anyone else wrecked a part ignoring advice that sounded too cautious?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_ben7d ago

Oh man, I feel your pain. I did the exact same thing to a Seiko shutter on a 105mm f/2.5 once. The canned air is just too strong and it'll blast those tiny blades right out of their pivot points. Best fix I found is getting a rubber blower bulb, the kind with a long narrow tip. You can squeeze it gently and control the airflow way better. Also, when you're working on the shutter, make sure you only blow from the front or back, never sideways into the blade gap. It's a slow, clumsy fix to realign those things, but it beats buying a new lens.

sullivan.abby7d ago

It's funny how this same principle shows up in so many places. Like with a pressure washer, everyone thinks more power is better until you accidentally strip paint off siding or etch a line into concrete. There's a real art to using the right tool with the right touch, not just the strongest one you can find. Sometimes the slow, gentle approach is actually the smarter, faster way in the long run.