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Showerthought: a guy at the Dallas camera swap last month showed me his toothbrush trick for cleaning focus rings, and I've used it 11 times since
I was at the Big D Camera Swap on a Saturday morning, mostly hunting for a cheap 50mm, when I got to talking with a repair guy named Herb who had a table of old Pentax bodies. He noticed me fiddling with a sticky focus ring on an A 50mm f1.7 I'd just bought for $30, and he pulls a plain soft toothbrush out of his jacket pocket. He said he quit using brushes with metal ferrules years ago because they scratch the barrel, and that a dry toothbrush pulls the old grease and grit out of the knurling without ever touching the glass. Took me about 2 minutes per lens and the ring went from grinding to smooth. I've done it on 11 lenses since, from a Canon FD to a beat up Nikon Series E. Curious what small tools you all keep in a pocket that most people wouldn't think of for camera work.
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dianas5018d ago
That line about the toothbrush pulling old grease out of the knurling really hit home, because I've been there with a gritty ring and no clue how to fix it without a full teardown. I feel for you on the guitar knob thing too, @the_logan, those get just as gunked up and a dry brush would probably wake them right up. My own small trick is a wooden toothpick for getting crumbs out of the little screw slots on lens mounts, since metal picks always seem to slip and gouge the finish. I keep one in my bag next to a microfiber and it has saved me more times than I can count on old bodies from flea markets. Simple stuff really does beat the fancy tools half the time.
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