Because I’m a bit weird, I have two phones: one I use day to day, and another that I use when I’m further afield (on vacation, for example). Anywho, I pulled my ‘away’ phone out of the drawer today, and I noticed that the rubber case felt really sticky; when I attempted to remove the cover, it just tore up in my hands like a sheet of soggy cardboard. No more than a week ago, it seemed perfectly fine. Alas; the dreaded curse of disinigrating rubber and plastic strikes again!
Sadly, this is something I’ve experienced all too frequently — sticky USB cables, discoloured keyboards… I even witnessed the rubber coating on a gaming mouse melt away over several weeks!
Now, there is a sound scientific explanation for all this (and it’s not that I’ve angered the god of ‘Laytex’ and ‘Bakerlite’ or anything; at least, as far as I know!), but it remains one of my biggest pet hates when it comes to modern gear! After spending a significant amount of hard-earned cash, the last thing I want is to find a puddle of crud where my lighting rig used to stand.
The problem, it seems, has got worse over time: I have cameras and lenses from 60 years ago that are as good as the day they were made, a few from the 1980s with melted grips and focus rings, and none from the 2000s onwards because they were all made from at least 60% plastic and rubber so they’ve all but evaporated into the ethos!
And to put the icing on the cake, I read a while back that plastic bottles have become a huge environmental problem because they can take around 450 years to degrade. Really?! Well, I’ll strike a deal with you: start making my gear out of those indestructable root beer bottles, and I’ll poor all the stuff I’ve bought so far this millenia down the sink; both our problems will be solved.
Anyone else have a huge gripe with this, or is it just me? Perhaps I really am cursed?! Or maybe I’ve just become the first in the latest generation of 'they sure as hell don’t make ‘em like they used to!’
Hmmmm… Dunno! I haven’t experienced much of this kind of thing, at least not the catastrophic kind . I have a Tamron lens where the rubber grips are kind of loose or stretched. But not sticky. But an old Sigma kit zoom that came unwanted with a Pentax film SLR was definitely degrading.
Oh, and I have actually melted a pair of earphones by using the wrong kind of sanitizer on them… Yep, I know… Still… Covid you know (excuse for many mistakes)
P.S. I’m typing this on a Kindle because my new mechanical keyboard that I bought six months ago is likely not too far short of it’s expected life span and could very well collapse into a pile of dust at the press of the next key!
Crikey! Maybe it IS just me? I hope I’m not radioactive or something!
And it’s funny you should mention headphones because that’s another thing: only last week I had to explain to my boss that the reason I’ve ordered a new pair is because my old ones started to stick to my head before they suddenly fell apart.
Oh, and before that the foam earpads on my Grados crumbled to bits!
Soft foam rubber (headphones etc) lasts only a handful of years. The semi-rigid stuff (camping mats etc) does much better; I have some from about 30 years ago.
In my experience of plastic bottles exposed to daylight: they become hard and brittle, and break into small pieces. So the item is useless, but the plastic doesn’t go away. It gets washed into watercourses or the sea and eaten by fauna.
I’ve lost the pen of a wacom due to the sticky plastic effect after not too many years. The replacement pen was about the price of the tablet itself, and a new, similar, tablet in sale did cost less. I hate to thrash working stuff because of being made so cheap, but often enough you do not know in advance or there is no choice.
You’re absolutely right about modern stuff being “made so cheap.” I have a collection of vintage lenses, and none of the origional plastic lens caps for these have had an issue.
After doing a bit more research (I’ll soon be writing an article, hence why any replies to this topic would be of great help), it seems that the problem relates to PVC-type materials (as apposed to PE, PES, or PP): Resources | Understanding Archival Polyester | Gaylord Archival
I also had a plastic pouch that was stored inside an airtight (and, obviously, UV-proof safe) turn to slush.
I realise this is mostly a rant post but I’ve used those Zeiss lens wipes on the sticky grip of an EOS 5 film camera I bought in the 90s. Turned out well.
Actually, your reply is very relevant, @TonyBarrett, and most certainly very welcome; Isopropanol alcohol (and other similar solvents) have been proven to improve the ‘tacky’ issue in some less severe cases. Unfortunately, many plastics and rubbers degrade so rapidly and to such an extent that their lifespan is all but exceeded.
I did a refurb (cosmetic only) on an X-T10, today. The eyepiece and whole area on the body behind the articulate LCD was a complete sticky mess. For some inexplicable reason, Fuji decided to surface-coat these plastic parts in that awful rubber finish — if it doesn’t wear off at the slightest hint of contact, it eventually ends up as a melted mush; absolutely awful stuff.
All that’s needed to remove this stuff is some run-of-the-mill hand sanitiser (the 70% alcohol stuff we all got used to using to stop our lungs exploding some time back). Which raises an interesting point: why would you use this stuff on anything that’s handled as frequently as cameras and computer mice when common hand sanitiser melts it away? The mind boggles.
I have a set of Orion Scenix binoculars whose porro prism back caps were finished in that stuff. As expected it was a sticky mess and I used isopropyl alcohol to remove it. Interestingly though, the printed information on the caps (FOV, magnification, etc.) didn’t come off. I guess whatever that surface is, it was applied over the printing. I also need to clean up an Anker Bluetooth adapter in my car with the same sticky coating.
They just don’t make things to last anymore. I have a particularly nice lens in my collection that was ‘born’ a good decade before we landed on The Moon, and there are lots of pre-70’s film cameras in top condition still knocking around. It’s sad to think that in the not-to-distant future, very little of the gear we’re using right now will have survived.
Now, now… they have “investor-driven” corporate revenue projections to meet, don’t they?? It’s not their fault!
As long as I’m having a “get off my grass” moment, don’t get me started on (mostly electronic) stuff that has unique proprietary ID flags built in for no other reason than to force the usage of their own parts / products instead of third-party replacements. I absolutely understand there are legitimate use cases where (for IP, security or other valid reasons) known-state OEM parts need to be used. But when it’s used solely to drive revenue lock-in… grrrr.
I promise not to get you started as long as you promise not to get me started; that’s another huge gear grinder of mine.
Well, I simply refuse to comply. I still use a mid-2011 iMac (running Linux because it’s not allowed to run the latest macOS), a Fujifilm X-T10 (because I refuse to pay another tonne for an upgrade when the build quality hasn’t improved in the slightest), and vintage lenses (because I don’t have to worry about the manufacturer telling me ‘we don’t fix them anymore’ — vintage lenses I can repair and maintain myself).
My bike’s handlebars were made of this stuff. After a few years, body sweat und UV light turned them into sticky jelly. At least on a bike they’re easily replaced with something sane.
Bike handlebars are difficult because they are exposed to the weather (UV, rain), especially if the bike is stored outside. Silicone is UV resistant but tears easily, rubber degrades when exposed to UV, plastic is too rigid, cork is expensive and crumbles too.
The best solution I found is hand-eez, this truly lasts decades and provides some cushioning. Your local bikeshop probably has them or can get them easily.
. I have a Tamron lens where the rubber grips are kind of loose or stretched. But not sticky. But an old Sigma kit zoom that came unwanted with a Pentax film SLR was definitely degrading.
Yep, I know… Still… Covid you know 
(excuse for many mistakes)
…
It’s not their fault!