Anytime you buy a camera where the seller claims he doesn't know how to test it, you can be sure it has problems. But at the right price and model, it can be worth the risk. I picked up an SV with such a claim, and quickly found that while the exterior condition was great, the first shutter curtain was very sluggish, and after a few tries it would stop before tripping the 2nd curtain travel. The "snappy" diaphragm also was sometimes slow to open again after closing.
The diaphragm was found to be a sticky actuating pin sliding through the rear of the lens. Even without disassembly it was easy to flush the pin and guide so the lens worked fine.
I expected to find the shutter mechanism all gunked up as well, but after pulling the mirror box, there was a fragment of film lodged behind the 1st curtain roller, that couldn't be seen without disassembly. Once I removed the film fragment the shutter and all worked freely, and the curtains don't seem to be damaged at all.
So with less than an hour's work the SV now works like you would hope an original condition unit would, with even the slow speeds and self-timer running smoothly.
The fast speeds are too fast (1/1000 is 1/2000) probably from being dry, and the bottom of the fresnel lens (viewfinder) has some light scratches (from poor cleaning), so I'll probably open it up again to tune it a bit and polish out the scratches. But it's amazing to see the good condition of some of these old cameras. Sometimes a risk can be a bargain.
Originally posted by TomB_tx 
if you are not afraid to "handle" and clean some fungus lenses, you can found some awesome deals 
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