Baking soda trick saved my sticky shutter blades on a Canon A1

I got an old Canon A1 from a thrift store in Portland a few weeks ago and the shutter blades were sticking bad at slow speeds. Tried cleaning with isopropyl alcohol but it didn't help much. Then I saw a tip online about making a paste with baking soda and water, applying it gently with a qtip, then rinsing with distilled water. After three rounds of that and letting it dry overnight, the shutter fires perfectly at every speed now. Has anyone else tried this method on sticky leaf shutters in older lenses?

2 comments

2 Comments

stellafisher21d ago

oh man that baking soda trick is wild. I used that stuff once to unstick a stuck filter ring on a vintage lens and it actually worked better than all the wrench tools I bought online. now i just use it for everything sticky on old cameras.

wyatt_green21d ago

Ugh that's such a good tip though. I gotta try that next time I get a sticky aperture ring on an old lens. Honestly I feel like half my camera gear is held together with random household stuff at this point haha.