Visited a camera swap meet in Portland and saw something that made me cringe

I was at the big monthly camera meet in Portland last weekend, checking out some old lenses. I saw a guy selling a beautiful Nikon F3, but when I picked it up, the film advance lever felt gritty and stuck. I asked him about it, and he just shrugged and said 'It's fine, just needs a little oil.' That's a classic sign of dried-up grease and worn parts inside. Has anyone else run into sellers passing off gear that clearly needs a full CLA as 'just a quick fix'?

2 comments

2 Comments

gavine4114d ago

Oh man, "just needs a little oil" is such a red flag. I had a guy try to tell me a Pentax MX with a shutter that sounded like gravel was "just stiff from sitting." Bought it as a project and found three broken gears inside.

wesley_grant3314d ago

My buddy bought a "mint" Leica that had fungus growing behind the front element.