A retired Nikon tech told me to stop using canned air on old shutters

Last month at a camera show in Denver, a guy who fixed Nikons for 30 years said canned air blasts oil into the curtain mechanism and makes it worse over time. I tried his method, using a soft brush and a dry cloth on a 1972 Nikkormat with a sticky shutter, and it freed up without a single flash of canned air. Have any of you switched to brush-only cleaning on pre-1980 bodies, or do you still blow things out first?

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taylorhunt14d ago

Ha! So the canned air industry is a lie, huh? That's like finding out Santa isn't real, but the sleigh is full of oil instead of toys. I mean, I've been blasting dust out of my F2 like it's a leaf blower for years, and now I'm picturing all that canned air just pushing grease deeper into the gears. Honestly though, it makes sense. That stuff is cold and wet, and old shutters are basically tiny oil traps. I switched to a soft brush and a lens cloth last month on a beat-up Pentax, and it's running smoother than my newer stuff. Guess I owe that retired tech a beer, and my cans of air a respectful funeral.