Cleaning?

[nealjpage]

Well, my new eBay find seems to work just fine, but it needs a good cleaning. It's a YashicaMAT LM and it's just generally dusty, especially inside the viewing hood. Is it advisable to take the top apart and dust it out? Or do I learn to live wth the dust?

 

[Mitica100]

Howdy,

Yes, you can clean the viewfinder glass but... do not clean the mirror under any circumstances. The only thing you can do to the mirror is blow some compressed air on it so the dust specs go away.

This is how you take it apart:

-Unscrew the four little screws that hold the folding hood and set them aside in a small little box/jar;

-Lift gently the hood ensemble making sure the lateral wings come out of the camera body without any snags;

-You should have access now to the entire surface of the focussing glass;

-Use a can of compressed air to blow away the dust;

-With a very soft and lintless piece of microfiber now clean the surface of the glass very gently;

-If needed, use a drop of alcohol on that piece of microfiber and run it on top of the glass in concentric circles, after which dry it with another corner of the same piece;

-Reinstall the hood, make sure the wings go in first and they go in gently;

-Place the screws back and secure.

Now, this is for a superficial focussing glass cleaning. If you want to go further I suggest you take it to a repair shop. You could remove the focussing glass when you open the hood but there are some sptrings on each side that will most likely pop out if you're not careful enough. That would give you access to the viewing mirror.

Remember, don't use just any tools to do this job, you need good quality jewelers' screwdrivers, a few tweezers to handle the little screws and a white bath towel to lay on the table you're going to work on. The towel will dampen anything that falls on it therefore the little pieces/screws that might fall on it won't go far.

Let me know if you need an exploded view of the camera's viewfinder and I'll scan it for you.