Appreciation post: That before-and-after on a CLA'd Pentax Spotmatic I did last week

I picked up this beat up Spotmatic from a garage sale in Portland for $20. The shutter was dragging at 1/500, looking more like 1/30. After I cleaned the old gunk out of the helicoid and relubed the mirror box, the difference was night and day. Now the speeds are bang on within 1/3 stop across the board. Has anyone else noticed how much a good CLA wakes up those old screwmount bodies?

2 comments

2 Comments

foster.jordan5d agoTop Commenter

$20 garage sale find and it just needed a CLA? Sounds like you practically stole it. Guess the seller didn't know what they had, lucky you got to it before some hipster paid $200 for "character".

river9525d ago

Yeah honestly I used to be one of those people who thought CLA was just a fancy way of saying "I overpaid for junk." Then I grabbed a beat up Pentax spotmatic at a flea market for $10, spent $40 on a CLA, and now it's my main shooter. @foster.jordan is right, sometimes you just get lucky and the seller doesn't want to deal with it.