Daily Archives: December 22, 2014

 

 

When I was an NPS rep for Nikon we were forbidden from telling people how to wet clean their sensor.  Liability.  If as a representative of any company you advise someone to try something with a risk of failure and they fail, they can say you said it was o.k.!  Now I know that keeping the sensor clean is a must and you can’t send it in every time you need it cleaned, so I got some very qualified people, who will go un-named to teach me the proper and safest way to clean a sensor with swabs.  Is there a risk of damaging the sensor? Yes.  Is it likely?   Only if you do it improperly.

 

So that brings us to a sticky problem I’ve had with the Fuji X-T1.  I love the cameras, it’s been just what I wanted and needed  Is it perfect?  No, but for me, it’s close. One little thing that has driven me mad is the four way pad on the back of the camera.  You use it for a lot of functions, most importantly moving the focusing spots around the frame.  Fuji tried to recess the pads so they would be more uh……, I honestly don’t know why!!!???  The result is fumbling to use them, especially with the camera held up to the eye, has been, for me, nearly impossible.  I once thought  that Fuji was going to offer a replacement set of pads, but that has not happened.

 

I read several months back on Fuji rumors about a materiel called Sugru.  It is a space age rubber compound that can be molded like Play-Doh in to many different shapes.  I was petrified at sticking a rubber compound on my four way pads, but I finally decided I had to try and fix the problem so day before yesterday I added a little nubbin of Sugru to one of my X-T1 bodies four way pads.  Illustrated below.

 

 

Their not pretty, but man does it work so much better.  I mean a world of difference in operation.  Now first I’m going to tell you how to do this if you are brave enough!  It really isn’t hard but I will suggest some serious precautions.  First you simply open the foil package so you can get access to the material.  I used a small instrument kind of like a tooth pick to rake off a very small amount.  You then take it between your thumb and forefinger and roll it into a small oblong shape kind of like a very small pill.  Compare the size of the material to the size of the thumb pad.  It needs to be big enough to cover most of the surface but not lap over the edges preventing the pad from going in when pressed.  You shape it to fit as you would like by gently using your finger tip to mold and shape it.  It does not set up fast so you have plenty of time to get it just right.  I used a tooth pick to go all around the edges to be sure it was not near the gap of the pad and the body.  After you have place the material and shaped it to all four pads, place the camera in a safe place to let in cure overnight.

 

Once it hardens it is very solid and make the tactile part of operating the thumb pads much easier.There is an old carpenters saying, ‘measure twice and cut once.  Start with a very small amount of material, if it’s not enough it’s a lot easier to add a little than to peel it all off and start again.

 

Here is a link for where to buy it.

 

 

The three pack of black is what I bought and it’s enough material to do a couple of dozen cameras!   It comers in other colors (red – yellow – blue – black and white) if that’s your style!  So there you have it, one solution.  If you want to make some easy money develop a self sticking rubber nubbin that you can simply peel and stick on,  you’d sell a bunch!

 

Merry Christmas,

 

the pilgrim