A Canon AE-1 mirror hung up mid-roll and I lost 24 frames before I caught it

Emery Lopez · 2026-07-11T22:40:04.383577+00:00

Happened last month during a wedding shoot in Portland - the mirror foam had turned to sticky goo and grabbed the mirror. Has anyone else dealt with this on old SLRs using a quicker fix than full foam replacement?

finley7293mo ago

Gently scrape the goo, leave bare metal. Works fine for years.

7

charles_kelly433mo ago

@nancyw97, did you have any luck with just scraping off the sticky foam and leaving the bare metal, or did it need a full replacement to stop the mirror slap later on?

4

nancyw973mo ago

Well, you should have checked the foam before a paying gig.

3