That lens grease I always dismissed actually fixed my sticky aperture blades

I had a set of stuck aperture blades on a Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 from the 70s. Tried cleaning with lighter fluid twice, no luck. After a tip from an old timer at a repair meetup in Portland, I used a tiny dab of Helimax XP grease on the pivot points and they moved smooth after sitting for 2 hours. Anyone else had good results with specific greases over standard lubes?

2 comments

2 Comments

kevin_schmidt9720d ago

Heard a repair guy at a camera swap meet say the same thing, light oils just make the problem worse long term cause they attract dust. Grease is the move for old Nikkor apertures, especially the 50 1.4s.

riverhill20d ago

Whoa, hold up. You're telling me that swap meet repair guy actually said light oils are the enemy on old Nikkors? Ngl that kinda blows my mind cause I've heard so many people say just use a drop of sewing machine oil on the blades. I've got a beat up 50 1.4 SC that's sticky as hell and I was about to try that light oil trick, now I'm glad I saw this before I screwed it up even worse.

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