Hit 200 shutter repairs on vintage Minoltas and realized I had a pattern

Just finished my 200th shutter curtain replacement on an old Minolta this afternoon. I started keeping count two years ago when I got into this as a side gig. The number surprised me because I never thought I'd see that many SRT bodies with the same exact light seal decay and curtain fraying. It's always the same spot on the right edge. Has anyone else noticed a specific camera model that just keeps showing up with the same failure over and over?

2 comments

2 Comments

king.ruby6d ago

That same spot on the right edge" is wild... I've got a handful of Minoltas on a shelf waiting for the same thing because I always put it off. You'd think they'd have reinforced it or something back in the factory. It reminds me of my old Pontiac where the driver's side door handle always broke at the same spot, no matter how careful you were. Not exactly the same thing but it's that same kind of pattern where a design just has a weak point baked in.

evac726d ago

Holy cow, a whole handful of them just sitting there? That's wild to me. You'd think after the first few they'd just learn to fix that weak point at the factory. It's like nobody bothered to look at the pattern. Reminds me of how some car companies just never fix a known problem across model years.