The CLA I botched for a decade until a 1964 Rolleiflex set me straight

I went 11 years cleaning shutters with the same naphtha soak method, worked fine on most leaf shutters, but a Rolleiflex I got from a retired wedding photographer showed streaky speeds on my shutter tester. Turns out I was leaving old lubricant residue in the escapement, and light oil was getting pulled back in during the first 20 actuations. Anyone else discover a bad habit after one stubborn camera made them recheck their whole process?

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flores.tessa20d agoTop Commenter

That stubborn Rolleiflex is basically the universe forcing you to slow down and question everything you thought you knew. It's funny how one thing that refuses to behave can make you see the flaws in a method you've used for over a decade without a second thought. I notice that same pattern outside cameras, like with my old truck that ran fine until one cold winter morning exposed a cracked hose I'd been ignoring for years. The stuff that works just okay hides the small problems until they turn into big ones. Your situation reminds me that sometimes we get so comfortable with a routine that we stop asking why it works, and it takes a real pain in the neck to make us look closer.