Bronica SQ-Ai Battery Check Light

Greetings to all and Happy Holidays. I have a question regarding the camera in the title. I have a Bronica SQ-Ai and my battery check light is not working. I recently purchased 2 10 packs of Maxwell LR-44 batteries. I placed a set of 4 new batteries into the battery cradle and the check light will not light. I opened a second set of batteries and still no luck. I have cleaned the contacts as well as place some card stock into the cradle and in the battery chamber to put some extra pressure on the battery door. The contacts are not covered in any way with the paper I used and still no luck.

Is there another trick that I can do that I haven't tried before sending it off for repair?

R/
Dave

does the shutter fire? maybe it's just the connection to the check light itself that's bad. perhaps not worth fixing. with the sq-ai i believe the shutter does not fire at any speed without a good battery.

hsandler said:

does the shutter fire? maybe it's just the connection to the check light itself that's bad. perhaps not worth fixing. with the sq-ai i believe the shutter does not fire at any speed without a good battery.

Click to expand...

Sadly no, the shutter isn't working. I'm gonna try a different set of batteries at the store tomorrow. Perhaps the ones I bought earlier in the fall were bad.

R/
Dave

My SQ-A uses a single 6-volt battery, but I'm vaguely recalling the -Ai uses four button cells in a holder which creates a more complex mechanical structure with many more electrical contacts to get bent/dirty/corroded. Possibly a close visual inspection of all the intricacies is in order; and/or someone familiar with the Ai has some experience to draw on.

Dave -

I had a very clean SQ-Ai body recently that was exhibiting similar issues. The battery check light was erratic, even with different sets of fresh batteries, and the shutter would often fail to fire. This was consistent even with different lenses, backs and finders attached. I also tried cleaning the contacts and pressing on the battery door, but to no avail. Luckily, I had just bought it as a backup to my SQ-A body, which has worked flawlessly for over 12 years. I assumed there was some internal electronic issue, so the seller refunded my money. Unfortunately, I can't help much as I never determined the real problem, but did you recently buy this body?

That being said, I'm much more confident with the SQ-A and will probably buy a second one soon. I believe there were some electronic changes with the SQ-Ai; different battery type, motor drive capability, off-the-film plane metering with flash, etc.

Good Luck!

Thanks everyone for your replies. I'll be heading to the store to buy another set of equivalent batteries from a different brand. I just now put some backing paper on a spool and tried to trick the camera but the shutter wouldn't fire. I think the mechanism is fried and will have to send it in for repair. It's insured as well so maybe I can get a new body. I love the system. It's very versatile and produces some great images. Oh well.

R/
Dave

you don't need backing paper to test fire the shutter on bronica sq series; just flip the multiple exposure lever and make sure the dark slide is out or remove the back.

hsandler said:

you don't need backing paper to test fire the shutter on bronica sq series; just flip the multiple exposure lever and make sure the dark slide is out or remove the back.

Click to expand...

I was trying different approaches. Nothing seems to be working. So I think I am just gonna get a quote and send in for repair.

R/
Dave