johnridley (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
johnridley) wrote2009-01-04 01:01 pm
johnridley) wrote2009-01-04 01:01 pm
Entry tags:
Weird camera issue
My A710 got damp last spring, and it made it start complaining about low batteries quickly. Previously, a charged set of NiMH AAs would go a month before complaining, after this event, it was only 2 or 3 days. I never bothered to figure out the exact nature of the drain, but I suspect it was draining the batteries while off.
Then it was OK for a while.
Starting about a week ago, I can drop in freshly-charged NiMH AAs and turn it on, and it immediately is complaining about low battery, and about 2 shots later it shuts off.
It does seem to work OK on alkaline AAs, though I've only taken a dozen shots or so with the set I put in there. Even though alkalines are generally pretty sub-optimal for digital cameras, I have an absolute RAFT of alkaline AA cells that I've rescued from the recycling bin and are actually still almost full, so I could probably use the camera for a year just on the alkalines I have piled up already.
If it comes down to it, I suspect I can take the camera apart a bit and I bet there will be an obvious place where there are water-placed deposits of some kind of mineral on the boards. A blast of MAP cleaner would probably take care of that. But I'll just keep using the dumb thing with alkalines for now.
Then it was OK for a while.
Starting about a week ago, I can drop in freshly-charged NiMH AAs and turn it on, and it immediately is complaining about low battery, and about 2 shots later it shuts off.
It does seem to work OK on alkaline AAs, though I've only taken a dozen shots or so with the set I put in there. Even though alkalines are generally pretty sub-optimal for digital cameras, I have an absolute RAFT of alkaline AA cells that I've rescued from the recycling bin and are actually still almost full, so I could probably use the camera for a year just on the alkalines I have piled up already.
If it comes down to it, I suspect I can take the camera apart a bit and I bet there will be an obvious place where there are water-placed deposits of some kind of mineral on the boards. A blast of MAP cleaner would probably take care of that. But I'll just keep using the dumb thing with alkalines for now.