The difference in a Yashica-Mat after 20 years of storage

I had this Yashica-Mat EM come in last week. Belonged to some guy's granddad who was a wedding photographer back in the 70s. Looked awful. Grease turned to glue. Shutter speeds all stuck. I mean the whole thing was a brick. After three days of careful work, I finally got the old lubricant out and replaced it with proper synthetic stuff. The mirrors got cleaned with Pec-12. I adjusted the focus screen too because it was way off. When I fired that first test roll through it, the negatives came out sharp as a tack. The owner called me this morning and said the shutter sounds like a brand new camera. Has anyone else found that old Yashica TLRs are especially prone to the grease turning into glue? Seems way worse than Rolleis from the same era.

2 comments

2 Comments

emeryn8311d ago

Yeah I've seen that a ton on Yashicas from that era. The trick is to NOT force anything when you're cleaning the shutter blades, just let the solvent work for a bit and it'll break free way easier. Makes me wonder if they used some weird tallow-based grease back then.

carter.julia11d ago

Oh man, the Yashica grease is legendary for turning into cement. I've seen it way more in those than in Rolleis for sure.