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Spent a full day trying to fix a shutter drag on an old Nikon F3
I was sure the issue was in the curtain tension, so I had the whole thing apart on my bench in Tulsa. After about six hours of tweaking and testing, nothing was working right. My buddy Mike stopped by, watched me for five minutes, and just said, 'You check the mirror damper foam?' I hadn't even thought about it. That old foam had turned to sticky goo and was slowing everything down. I felt like such an idiot for missing something so basic while I was deep in the weeds. A two dollar piece of foam and ten minutes of cleaning later, it ran like new. How many other simple fixes have I overcomplicated because I jumped to the hardest answer first?
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cameronn625mo ago
Jumping to the hardest answer first is actually the smart move. Starting with the simple stuff means you waste time checking a bunch of easy things that probably aren't the problem. That old foam is a known issue, sure, but the curtain tension is a more common cause for that specific shutter drag. You were right to go deep first. Overcomplicating it just means you're being thorough and ruling out the major failures. Sometimes the simple fix is just luck.
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rileyb615mo ago
Reminds me of the time I spent a whole weekend trying to fix a running toilet. I was convinced it was a bad fill valve and replaced the whole assembly, only to find out later the flapper chain was just a little too tight. It's funny how the obvious thing is the last place we look.
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