My Nikon N80 arrived from eBay so sticky it was unusable. After scrubbing the mineral oil off with paper towels, cleaning the residue, and letting it dry overnight it’s perfectly fine now. You may notice the rubber is a bit on the dull side, but I’ll take that over sticky any day of the week.
Sticky rubber. It’s one of the worst aspects of dealing with aging electronics. It’s why Dank Pods has to wear gloves when going on a lucky dip. And old photo gear has loads of rubber on it, all of it just waiting to turn into gross goo as it ages. It might feel completely random, too. While one ancient camera’s grip is fine, the one sitting in the closet being carefully preserved has seemingly turned to mush.
Plagued with this issue, I waded through the modern internet (see: old forum posts and endless AI slop) and came up with so, so many different solutions and no clear answers. However, after experimenting with different techniques, I’m relieved to say the issue is actually far simpler to deal with than I expected and completely curable. Just be ready to apply a little elbow grease.
This brand new camera is covered in rubber/plastic that hasn’t turned to goo… yet. Give it time.
WHAT CAUSES STICKY RUBBER CAMERA GRIPS?
Modern rubber is ‘vulcanized,’ which is a treatment that the rubber goes through to become the consumer product we all know and love. Over time, the chemicals added to the rubber begin to separate and collect on the surface. Often a layer of mineral oil collects and causes the sticky condition.
The process of rubber and oil separating is a continuous process that’s always happening, but regularly used rubber surfaces will easily shed that small amount of oil though the friction of regular handling. That’s why cameras in storage seem to fall prey to sticky rubber grips – nobody’s been handling those cameras. My rarely used remote for my speaker system developed sticky rubber syndrome while my regularly used TV remote didn’t at the same time.
It’s tempting to just chalk up sticky rubber as an unsolvable condition. In fact, there are many people on the internet who say this condition is incurable. But it’s not! It’s actually really easy to fix!
Even the esteemed Nikon F5 will develop sticky grips with time left in storage.
WHAT’S THE SOLUTION
You just need to scrub really hard. You can use any abrasive surface, a rag or even a paper towel. It’ll take way longer than you want it to, but eventually that mineral oil will wear off and the rubber will be good as new.
There are truly a million ways that people have figured out to do this, but at the end of the day, you need a rough cloth/towel of some kind and friction. Abrasive materials like a magic eraser (or sandpaper if you’re hardcore) can also speed up the process.
You can’t ‘clean’ off the oil with soap or caustic agents. The oil just needs to bind with something and be rubbed away. Paper towels and magic erasers work great as the oil will combine with the bits of towel/eraser that are shed. To help remove the debris caused by this process you can use rubbing alcohol or good ol’ fashioned water.
That’s it. I’ve saved countless sticky cameras using these techniques. Get out there and shoot that old camera!
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