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Tried to fix a stuck shutter on a vintage Minolta and lost $80 on parts

A few months back I picked up a beat up Minolta SRT-101 at a garage sale and figured I could bring it back to life. I ordered a shutter curtain kit online for $60 plus $20 shipping, thinking I'd just swap it in over a weekend. Turns out the repair was way more finicky than any YouTube video showed, and I ended up bending a tiny gear in the process. Now the camera is basically a paperweight and I'm out the money plus a bunch of time. Anybody have tips for matching shutter speeds without dropping a ton on a specialized tester?
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2 Comments
violamurray
Used to think all cameras were easy to fix, now I know that's not true.
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eric_murray26
Blew my mind when I tried to fix an old film camera and realized the shutter mechanism was basically a tiny clockwork bomb lmao. My friend was like "just watch a youtube tutorial" and I ended up with like 7 extra screws and a spring that shot across the room. Been three years and I still find random camera parts in my couch cushions. Feels like every brand has its own weird quirk too like Canon stuff melts if you breathe wrong but Nikon bodies are built like tanks.
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