Anyone ever revived a dead Elan II?

[BHuij]

To make a long story short, I rolled the dice and came up short on an "untested" Elan II on a popular auction site this week. Felt good about it because it was very inexpensive, the pictures looked good, and the seller said he'd obtained it as part of an estate sale of a prolific hobby photographer. I thought it was fairly likely the camera had been well-cared-for, and I could get lucky just popping in a fresh battery. No such luck.

I know conventional wisdom is that complicated electronic cameras are not worth the time and effort it takes to fix them, and that they're beyond the skillset of the average tinkerer. Fine. That may be true. I want to try anyway. I'm only out $25 here, and have nothing to lose but a bit of time. If you're hear to tell me not to bother, save your digital breath

My google-fu has so far turned up a lot of tutorials on how to fix a bad film door latch; common problem on this model. Mine is fine. A few threads on replacing a bad command dial. Also fine here.

It's totally DOA. No obvious signs of damage. Nothing on the display. Not a flicker. I have confirmed my battery has good voltage. No visible corrosion or anything on the battery contacts. So unfortunately, the easy/obvious solutions have been ruled out. I have my multimeter, jeweler's screwdrivers, soldering iron, a basic understanding of electronic circuits, a healthy sense of adventure, and a comically large dose of unearned confidence. Anyone ever pulled this off before or know of resources for troubleshooting EOS circuits?

 

[awty]

Often no power is either at the battery terminals or at the switch. I would thoroughly check both before digging too deep.

 

[4season]

Assuming a good 2CR5 battery measuring ~6.3 volts or thereabouts, it might be worthwhile to see if you can access the motorized bits of the camera without too much fuss, and if so, try advancing them manually, just enough to rotate the motors a little. If you're lucky, the camera may spring to life. Plastic pinion gears pressed onto the motor shafts often develop cracks over time, and if you encounter them, it's best to replace them.

Some electronic cameras including Lomo LC-A do suffer from dirty electrical contacts because they're not really sealed against dust, but I wouldn't expect that to be a problem with your camera unless it was stored under really poor conditions.

 

[BHuij]

I confirmed correct voltage on the battery. When I put the prongs on the battery contacts in the camera, should I expect to see a low resistance in the circuit?

The "switch" on this camera is just the mode dial - one of the modes is basically "off" and the rest are some form of "on"

 

[4season]

Does the resistance start to rise after a few seconds? If so, you are likely getting bogus readings because you are charging a capacitor.

 

[koraks]

Does the resistance start to rise after a few seconds? If so, you are likely getting bogus readings because you are charging a capacitor.

Correct.

I'd start by obtaining the service manual: https://learncamerarepair.com/product.php?product=2082
All the way towards the end of the document you'll find the electrical diagram. There's also information in section 2 on the power-on cycle scheme as well as the power supply topology in general, and in section 3 you'll find numbers on typical current consumption. There's also a neat suggestion on how to fashion a provisional/testing power supply with a shunt resistor that allows you to measure current consumption. Using this information, I'd open up the camera (removing the outer 'layers' of shell isn't too daunting) and locate the DC/DC fpc and do some measurements with the battery or a test power supply installed. Track down the voltages until you find what's going wrong.

 

[Willy T]

Made between 1995-2000.
Battery contacts can sometimes have an invisible oxidation "haze" which prevents full current flow. Might try mildly abrading contacts with coarse eraser or such.

 

[BHuij]

Made between 1995-2000.
Battery contacts can sometimes have an invisible oxidation "haze" which prevents full current flow. Might try mildly abrading contacts with coarse eraser or such.

Deoxit ought to do the trick if it’s simply a thin layer of something preventing the battery from touching the metal?

 

[Willy T]

Deoxit ought to do the trick if it’s simply a thin layer of something preventing the battery from touching the metal?

Certainly worth a try.
I've gotten down in there with the ends of emery boards (sorta extreme, yeah) and had it work

 

[ic-racer]

Last spring I got an Elan for $5 but the spring for the mirror was broken. It would only fire upside down. I got another, just for the matching EOS strap for about $7. That one works great.

 

[deckeda]

Many years ago, my Elan II stopped powering up. This was before 2000. I noticed it would power up if I opened the battery door and pressed on the battery, because like you, I knew the battery was good. I added a little folded thin stiff paper "spacer" between the battery and battery door to take up what I interpreted as slack.

Today I use the optional battery grip with it instead, although I don't like the added bulk. BP-50 allows for either one 2CR5 + twin AA's or 4 AA's and yes rechargeable NiMH AA's work fine. Kind of a long shot to be honest. Do the push test first with a 2CR5. If nothing else, recognize that the battery contacts inside the camera are basically angled spring metal that might just respond to a gentle pry-up (I never tried), assuming that's somehow the problem.

Mine has the other issue these experience, with the mirror flapping up a 2nd time and not releasing without either power-cycling, or activating the meter or AF function.

FYI, as far as I am aware, the Elan 7 fixed these issues. But you'll pay much more to own one, unfortunately. I do like my 7, but the form factor is unfortunately 100% DSLR, whereas the Elan II at least had some pretense of cleaner style (would be my favorite Canon EOS if not for the defective design.)

 

[koraks]

I have an Elan IIe (50e); it's a problem-free camera. I wasn't aware of any systematic issues with this model. It's apparently not something people talk about a lot. I admit I don't use it much because I prefer the Elan 7ne/EOS 30v, which uses the cheaper 123A batteries. Perhaps I should build a 2CR5 adapter that takes 2x123A and take the 50e out for a spin one of these days.

I do vaguely recall contact issues when using a battery grip, but I'm not sure I even have the grip anymore. The whole point of these cameras for me is that they're lightweight and compact, while offering a fairly complete SLR functionality. Bolting a grip to it defeats the purpose.

Not sure about the DSLR remark; with the advent of the Canon T90, every (even across brands) SLR has pretty much followed the same design pattern. The only thing 'funky' about the 50/II is that it's a weird silver color (that scratches easily). What's nice about it is that it also (like the 7/30 series) has the dial on the back. Entry-level EOS cameras lack the big dial, which makes them less convenient to use in manual exposure mode, which is how I use these virtually always.

One of my 30v's does have a minor issue: a faulty battery status indicator. Haven't figured out what's wrong with it, exactly; it might just be a dead segment on the LCD. Otherwise the camera works fine, so I haven't dedicated much time to trying to sort it, yet.