Tried fixing a shutter issue on a Canon AE-1 and made it way worse

Picked up a cheap Canon AE-1 from a thrift store last week, thought the shutter was just sticking a little. Opened it up to clean the blades and must have knocked something loose because now the mirror won't flip back down. Spent 3 hours on a YouTube tutorial trying to reset it but just ended up bending a spring. Anyone know a good source for replacement mirror box parts or should I just toss this thing? Has anyone else botched a simple CLA this bad?

3 comments

3 Comments

morgan.charlie27d ago

Oh man, "bent a spring" - I felt that in my soul. I did something similar with an old Yashica Electro 35 where I thought I'd just "gently lift" the shutter curtain to free it up, and next thing I knew I had a handful of tiny bits that definitely did NOT go back together the way they came apart. @ryanj60 is right about the donor body thing being a pain, though it's worth checking if you can find a junker on eBay that's already gutted so you're not paying for a whole working camera just for one part. Honestly I'd say set it aside for a month, come back with fresh eyes, and if you still can't get the mirror sorted then yeah, chalk it up as a learning experience and keep your eyes peeled for another cheap AE-1 body.

ryanj6028d ago

Joined you in the club on this one. I did the exact same thing with an old Pentax K1000 last year, saw a little oil on the blades and thought I'd be slick cleaning them. Ended up tweaking a linkage and the whole timing went out the window, the shutter would fire at random speeds or just freeze up. Bent a spring trying to get it back in place and had to order a donor body off eBay for parts, which took forever to ship. It's way too easy to do more harm than good when you start poking around in those old shutters. In my experience, unless you've got a proper repair manual and a steady hand, it's usually cheaper to just find another body and call the first one a learning experience.

derek_brown2828d ago

lol "tweaked a linkage" is the nice way of saying you absolutely wrecked it. But honestly the real hidden cost nobody talks about is the time you sink into trying to fix it. I probably spent like 15 hours watching YouTube repair videos and squinting at tiny springs before I gave up on my Canonet. That's a lot of shooting time you could have had with a working camera instead.