Had a shutter curtain turn into a confetti cannon yesterday

I was testing a Pentax Spotmatic that came in for slow speeds, and when I fired it at 1/1000, the curtain just shredded apart mid-frame. Tiny bits of cloth went everywhere inside the mirror box. Turned out the curtain material was dry rotted from sitting in a hot attic for 20 years. I spent two hours with tweezers and a vacuum picking out fabric scraps from the gears. Has anyone else had a curtain just explode on them like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

hugoh5521d ago

I mean I swear I read somewhere that the old rubberized silk curtains in those Spotmatics just turn to dust if you look at them wrong. That sounds like a nightmare to clean out though.

alicecooper21d ago

Ask @hugoh55 if he knows whether cleaning that dust can damage the shutter blades underneath.