Pro tip: That camera show in Chicago changed my repair workflow for good

I went to the big vintage camera swap in Chicago last spring. A guy there showed me how he cleans shutter blades with naphtha instead of alcohol. I tried it on a beat up Kodak Retina and it worked way better than my old method. Now I'm wondering if alcohol is actually doing more harm than good on old shutters. Has anyone else switched solvents and seen a real difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

pat36011d ago

Wait, has anyone actually tested what naphtha does to old lubricants over time? I switched to naphtha a while back on a tricky Compur shutter and it was night and day better than alcohol. Alcohol always felt like it was stripping the blades dry and leaving this weird residue. Naphtha seems to cut through the old gunk without messing up the factory lubricants deeper in the mechanism. I've been using it on all my pre-war cameras since then and haven't had any issues.

betty_shah11d ago

Heard a buddy ruin his vintage Kodak with naphtha, blades seized up solid.