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Dropped a Canon AE-1 on the counter and suddenly the shutter release jammed
Was cleaning a customer's AE-1 at my shop near downtown Portland when it slipped and hit the table. Took me 45 minutes to figure out the winding mechanism got misaligned from the impact, just needed a gentle nudge back into place. Anyone else had a drop cause a weird intermittent issue like that?
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ruby_henderson3621d ago
Read a repair blog that said AE-1 drops often crack the plastic winding gears.
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riley_wood8421d ago
Idk, I kinda see this differently. Maybe it's just me but dropping a camera like that usually means something internal got knocked loose or bent, not just a simple misalignment. I've had a few AE-1s come through and a drop that hard often bends the actual plastic parts in the winding mechanism, so a "gentle nudge" might just be a temporary fix. The real issue could be a cracked gear or a bent pawl that'll fail again after a few rolls. I'd watch it closely for a while before calling it fixed for good.
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the_lisa21d ago
riley_wood84's got a point but honestly sometimes a drop just knocks things loose without breaking them. I've had an AE-1 where the winding spool just slid a millimeter off its track after a tumble and worked fine for years after I pushed it back. But yeah, you're right to be cautious those plastic gears are garbage the early ones crack way easier than the later metal ones. If it jams again within a month you'll know it's really done for.
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