I finally got my old Pentax K1000 working again after the shutter jammed in a dusty field

I was out near a dried-up creek bed outside Austin last month trying to get some shots of wildflowers before they wilted. The shutter got stuck halfway on frame 12 and I thought the camera was toast. I took it home, removed the lens, and got a pair of tweezers to gently nudge the curtain. It turned out a tiny piece of gravel had wedged itself in the track. I used a blower brush and some isopropyl alcohol on a q-tip to clean out the rest of the gunk. After that the shutter fired clean through a full roll of Tri-X. Has anyone else had success fixing a stuck shutter without sending it to a shop? I'm curious what other field fixes work.

2 comments

2 Comments

sanchez.mia1mo ago

Wait, you fixed a shutter jam with a pair of tweezers and a q-tip? That's crazy, I would've been way too scared to even touch the curtain like that.

cole_bailey851mo ago

I mean honestly a jammed shutter from a grain of sand isn't exactly brain surgery, people act like these cameras are made of glass. Give it a good cleaning and a gentle nudge and it's usually fine.