[Eagle94VT]

I tried poking around the internet for any specific recommendations, other than occasionally firing the shutter to keep the oils flowing, specific to shutter 'maintenance'. Does anyone have more information? I thought about it when I read an article a while back about a Nikon F5 that had a shutter count well over 1 million and there was a generic blurb that it was "well maintained" and never failed. I have no specific cameras I'm worried about, and I doubt I'll be firing 28,000 rolls of 36 count film in this lifetime - just curious.

[photoptimist]

Probably the best advice is to avoid dust in the mirrorbox & sensor which could get into the shutter mechanism and create friction and abrasion. Likewise, salty sea air could induce corrosion.

Of course that means: don't change lenses, don't zoom a lot, don't go outside, don't go to the sea shore. Just fire the camera inside a hermetically sealed clean-room. Where's the fun in that!??!!?!?

Personally, I like taking pictures outside, using different lenses, going to sea, etc. And, although I try to be careful and specifically bought Pentax for it's ruggedness, I know that I'm taking more risks with my camera than someone who keeps their camera coddled in a bag or in a studio. It's a price I'm willing to pay for images that aren't found indoors in clean environments.



P.S. I've sometimes wondered if gel-sticks would be better than rocket blowers for sensor cleaning in that gel-sticks remove dust whereas rocket blowers blast dust into other parts of the shutter, mirrorbox, and focus screen areas.

PPS: Sorry about the mention of digital camera stuff in the film camera section!

[dsmithhfx]

Light seals, film advance usually fail well before shutters. The cardinal rules I've always followed are never leave the shutter cocked for any length of time, and avoid poking it when loading film..

[TwoUptons]

I used to have a customer who put Canon T50s on rockets. I think he generally got <500 frames before a recovery system failed and he needed a new one.

So don’t put your film cameras on rockets

Seriously, I don’t know anyone putting super heavy use on film cameras any more, so I think the finger through the shutter, normal degradation with time, and sand/water, are more likely than ‘wearing one out’

-Eric[COLOR="Silver"]

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Last edited by TwoUptons; 01-14-2019 at 12:48 PM.

[womble]

I killed the shutter on my original ME Super, twice... but then I was using it to take photos on archaeological excavations which are notoriously dirty and dusty.

In normal use, I'd not worry. If you have a few film cameras, try to rotate use, or at least "exercise" each one occasionally. Sitting around doing nothing is not good for people and cameras alike.

[Astro-Baby]

I was taught by dad who worked at Agfa in the 50s and had no small understanding of the needs of a camera to never leave the camera wound on and shutter primed for any length of time, always make sure the frame counter is reset to zero by opening the back door to trip the reset when storing the camera for any length of time and also set the shutter speed at a mid point and don't leave it set at a low setting when storing. The last still holds true for some Russian cameras like the Zorki but I don't suppose it makes much difference to Japanese SLRs of the 1970s. The rest of it makes sense as you are taking the pressure off the springs inside.

Oh and also cap any light meters when not in use. Thats was probably only ever true for selenium cells but its good advice for Pentax K1000s as well which have a light activated meter on switch - quite neat so long as you remember to keep the thing in its case.

Because the care of the camera was always drilled into me I still do it. Set a child on the right path and in old age they will not deviate from it