Figured out a cleaning trick for old viewfinders that saved me 3 hours

I've been fighting with this sticky haze inside a Pentax Spotmatic viewfinder for like 2 weeks. Tried isopropyl alcohol and lens cleaner but nothing worked. Then I remembered reading about using Rodico on old mirrors and figured why not try it on the prism. Used a small rolled piece of Rodico to gently dab the haze off the prism surface and it came clean in about 10 minutes no scratches. Has anyone else used Rodico for internal cleaning or am I just slow to catch on?

2 comments

2 Comments

kevin_schmidt973d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah that's wild how sometimes the stuff meant for one thing works way better on something else! It's like how I use guitar string lube on squeaky door hinges and it works better than actual WD-40. Seems like half the tricks we figure out come from just trying random things that were never meant for that job in the first place.

xenarobinson3d agoMost Upvoted

Never really thought about it that way before, but you're totally right. Used to think everything had its one specific job and you were dumb if you used it otherwise. But then I tried using fabric softener sheets to wipe down my baseboards and holy crap, they work better than any dusting spray I've bought. Now I keep all kinds of random stuff around just to see what else it might do. Your guitar string lube trick is genius by the way, gonna try that on my bathroom door hinge cause it squeaks like crazy.