VERY successful removal of stickiness on some newer SLR bodies

Thanks David. I have a couple of Nikon N90's that could use this treatment.

 

I did the same on a Nikon D70s but after the treatment it's so smooth and doesn't have the same feel like when it was new.

 

In the past I tried several solvents and Propanol was one of them, but did not find a remedy. These cameras are just doomed.
I can put them on a shelf without further touching and hope they stay as good as possible for some time, or try to take off that compound completely and maybe substitute by something else.

 

My Maxxum 7 is becoming sticky, so I'll try this method - thank you. Any particular type of tissue? Kimwipes?

 

I did that on my N90s, but I removed the back door, laid paper towels soaked in iso on it, and wrapped it in plastic wrap, let it sit, repeat a few times. I let the chemical do most of the work - it did still take some scrubbing.

 

Flamethrower.
Unfortunately any "fix" is temporary - my first cellphone was covered with a similar compound; it's all turned to goo. I was offered a rubberised Nikon sonething-or-other, when I tried to put it down, it was stuck to my hand.
The leather on my '36 Contax, '46 Rollei; bellows on the '51 Deardorff and '59 Linhoff are just fine

 

If it is five minutes fix which will lasts for five months, I'm OK with it to be temporary.

 

I have two Minolta Dynax 7's that are similarly afflicted. I have removed the sticky rubber right back to the bare moulding on one of the camera backs.

Can't remember which solvent I used - isopropyl alcohol or lighter fluid, (naptha). I used an old soft T-shirt and had to change the cloth patch frequently as it discoloured with the dissolved coating from the camera. Had to be careful around the LCD screen and buttons on the camera back.

This is a permanent fix as all that is left is the bare camera door as it was moulded before being spray? coated with the rubber compound.

I'll get around to cleaning up the second Dynax 7 one of these days. In the meantime I am enjoying a Minolta 807si and a swag of Canon FD bodies. (If anything I find that the Dynax 7 body without a grip is a bit small for my hands. Also have to use the expensive CR123 batteries. My 807si has a grip and I use AA's).

 

I will go along with the Isopropanol remedy. I bought a Nikon F100 for not a lot of money (about half price of a one without a sticky back) and the stickiness was removed almost immediately with isopropanol wiped over using paper from a kitchen roll. Two years later it is still like new. I also tried it on an F80 which was worse and this took a bit more work but eventually that succeeded as well. Go for it, a simple remedy for an annoying problem.

P.S. Isopropanol works very well as a lens cleaner too. I make my own with 10% isopropanol, diluted with 90% distilled water plus a couple of drops of Kodak wetting agent. I fill this into a 50cc pump action atomiser bottle and this will last for years.

 

Any photos before and after to show the outcomes? I have had mixed success and would love to see other peoples results with this method.

 

Some cameras have a rubber-like coating sprayed on. Some cameras from the same period though have complete rubber-like parts attached to body. These parts not only develop a smeary surface but also develop cracks.

 

Leaking plasticisers. The plastic will become brittle with time and maybe shrink and disintegrate. The Yashica covering is probably a plastic leatherette.

 

Hi Sabredog, here are a few

 

The Ferrari F355 is notorious for having a console that becomes sticky after a while; perhaps your solution (heh) will work in that situation as well and you can obtain a few cars as payment.

 

For the extremely sticky Sigma 400mm lens Ronwhit sent me as a restoration project, I tried your method of Isopropyl alcohol and paper towels, but it was very slow and would have taken forever to clean this lens, so I went straight to acetone.

Of course, the underlying body of the lens is METAL, so I wouldn't try this on a plastic body of a slr/dslr, but if you have a lens like the Sigma that is terminally sticky, this works a treat.

I still had to rub firmly and change cloth areas often. The gooey rubber that comes off is evil and will stain everything it touches, so wear gloves.

It is weird how the paint on the lens can survive but the black, rubbery goo comes off as long as you gently wipe over the painted numbers, allowing it to dry between swipes and don't linger or rub hard. It does degrade the numbering somewhat, but the lens would have be unusable anyway, so it's worth the trade-off.

I was fully prepared to re-paint or put new transfer numbers back on the lens, but I might not have to now.

Now I can pick the lens up and not have black goo transfer to my hands; it was literally melting into my skin from body heat contact.

Next, disassemble the beast; 7 elements down lies a fungus farm of amazing proportions...

 

Canon's EOS 1 and later EOS 1N thoroughbreds were once derided for a stickiness that was prominent on the palm-door fascia but nowhere else, leading to all manner of conspiracy theorists having their day. My own EOS 1N has this, and it is not and never has been a problem. Creative types took to this "disturbing problem" with acetone, with the predictable outcome that the treatment destroyed the entire surface, necessitating costly replacement of the palm door. Others still used Shellite, hydrogen peroxide, super glue, shoe polish and even a Dremel tool to abrade the surface. IDIOTS! The stickiness was there to enhance one-handed freestyle gripping of the camera with the attached palm-strap -- a set-up I adopted many, many years ago and which is unbeatable in its efficiency. As irritating as it was, and seeing the need to appease the sweating pundits, the EOS 1V mothership was devoid of this feature, and the EOS cameras and their mentally traumatised owners lived happily ever after.

 

"Of course, the underlying body of the lens is METAL, so I wouldn't try this on a plastic body of a slr/dslr...,"

LOL. Just goes to show you; you underline and bold a disclaimer about acetone and plastic, but it does no good.

 

There is a difference between a rubber-feel and stickiness.
So far I have not come across any item be it a camera or another consumer good that was sticky from the very beginning.