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Fixing a Leica M3 at a flea market in Portland made me change how I clean old lenses
I was at the Portland Saturday Market about two months ago, just browsing, and a guy had a box of old camera stuff. He sold me a beat up Leica M3 for 80 bucks, said it was junk. The viewfinder was totally fogged, like you couldn't see a thing. I got it home and started the usual routine, but the haze wouldn't budge with my normal lens cleaner. On a whim, I tried a tiny drop of pure isopropyl alcohol on a microfiber cloth, just on the inner element of the viewfinder optics, not the lens. It wiped clear like magic. I always avoided alcohol on glass before, worried about coatings. Now I keep a small bottle of the 99% stuff in my kit just for that kind of cemented haze on really old pieces. Has anyone else found a weird, specific cleaner that works on a problem everyone says is hopeless?
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nancyn697mo ago
Sounds like a great way to ruin a lens.
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tarabell5mo ago
Right there with you, that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.
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josephadams7mo ago
Ever hear about the guy who fixed a stuck aperture on a Pentax with olive oil? My buddy had an old Spotmatic where the blades were glued shut with old grease. Everyone told him it was trash. He read some ancient forum post about using a tiny bit of light olive oil, not the cooking kind, to free it up. He put one drop on a toothpick, touched it to the blade pivot, and let it sit for a day. It actually worked and the blades started moving smoothly again. He says it was a total gamble but now he swears by it for that one very specific problem.
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