What happened to my camera?

What happened to my camera?

It's been roughly ten months since I last got to use my dad's old Nikon FM SLR. Ever since Uncle Butch and Auntie Carole gave me that Sony CD Mavica digicam as a belated graduation present, I've mothballed the FM.

Tonight I decided to exercise its internal mechanisms a little. Nothing could prepare me for what my cabinet had in store for me, though.

I was shocked to see blue-green stuff that looked like dried-up toothpaste building on the nooks and crannies of the FM's controls. It certainly looked like either mold or some kind of fungus, which I don't understand because I packed the camera in with packets of dessicant. The bottom had a white powder to it, and some parts of the lower lens mount had become chipped. Apparently this was the result of corrosion damage. The lens-release button had become very hard to push in, and when I did, it wouldn't pop back out on release.

I felt sorry for the FM. I took out the smallest screwdriver from my Swiss Army knife and tried popping open some screws, but I realized a cleanup job should be left to the professionals along Hidalgo St. in Quiapo. Mechanically the internals are fine; the shutter still works, the film still advances as it should, the meter is as reactive as it's ever been and the lens apertures close down upon shutter release.

It's just the shock of the corrosion and mold/mildew that got me. That was just not supposed to happen with all the dessicant I packed in.