Opened up a 35 year old Nikon today and found a dead spider blocking the mirror

Customer said the shutter sounded off, so I popped the mirror box open and there was a big dried out spider just sitting there jamming everything up. Cleaned it out and the camera fired perfectly after that. How often do you guys find random stuff inside old bodies?

3 comments

3 Comments

emma_baker611d ago

Dead spider blocking the mirror" - yikes. That's a new one, even for old Nikons.

wilson.olivia1d ago

@olivia_white93 you are so right about the tiny dead things theory. I once had a clock radio that would only work if I slapped it on the side just right. Turned out a dried up ladybug was wedged against the power button contacts. Took me three years and a YouTube video to figure that out. Makes me wonder what other gadgets I've cursed at were just full of tiny corpses.

olivia_white931d ago

It's funny but @emma_baker61 this kind of thing happens more than you'd think. Not just with cameras either. I found a dead moth inside an old lamp once that had been making a weird buzzing sound for years. There's something about small dark spaces that bugs and spiders just love. They crawl in looking for shelter or food and then they die and turn into little time bombs for whatever gadget they're hiding in. It makes me wonder how many broken things out there just have a tiny dead thing inside causing all the trouble. Like maybe half the stuff we throw away just needs a good cleaning and a new spider funeral.