A 40 year old tech proved me wrong about flex cables

I used to always replace a whole flex cable whenever a camera had shutter issues. But an old tech at a shop in Portland told me just to clean the contact points with isopropyl alcohol and a pencil eraser. I laughed it off until I tried it on a Canon AE-1 that was giving intermittent errors. It worked perfectly, saved the customer $60, and took maybe 10 minutes. Now I always try cleaning before replacing, though sometimes you still need a new cable. Has anyone else found a trick that goes against the usual advice?

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2 Comments

victor7592mo ago

Why would you risk damaging pins with an eraser when a new cable is so cheap?

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the_fiona2mo ago

Oh come on, you've never had a cable that was perfectly fine except for one little patch of corrosion? The cheap ones I can get locally are garbage plastic that'll crack in a month, meanwhile I've got this old braided cable from like 2018 that still charges fast but just got a bit of green crud on the connector from sitting in a damp bag. A gentle rub with a pencil eraser is way less risky than people act like it is, I've done it dozens of times across USB-C and Lightning without a single bent pin. Plus that "cheap" new cable is probably just going to add more e-waste to the landfill when it breaks in six months anyway.

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