Canon Elan 7 strange issue when battery power is low

[mauro35]

Hi all!

I wanted to write about an issue I experienced couple of days ago with my Canon Elan 7. I had a roll of 36 exposures in it and the battery run out of power just after I pressed the shutter to expose frame number 12. The shutter closed properly, but the film did not advance to the next frame and the camera went off completely. I changed batteries immediately, but all I got was the frame number on the LCD constantly blinking and the camera was unusable. I tried everything possible button or switch, but the only thing that worked was the mid-roll rewind. So more than half of the roll was left unexposed and I did not have a lead retriever with me. I was wondering if any of you experienced anything similar and if you know a way to bring the camera back to proper functioning in this situation.

 

[MattKing]

Try changing the batteries again.

 

[benjiboy]

|Check the actual battery voltage with as multimeter before you install it.

 

[mauro35]

Try changing the batteries again.

Did that about five times. Also tried another new pair of batteries. Did not help. But I could not check the voltage. I just know that only after the mid-roll rewind with the new fully charged batteries the camera was back to normal.
Not that it bothers me so much, but it would be good to understand what happened and how to unjam the camera without having to rewind the non-exposed film.

 

[MattKing]

Did that about five times. Also tried another new pair of batteries. Did not help. But I could not check the voltage. I just know that after the mid-roll rewind with the new fully charged batteries the camera was back to normal.

I think that this is different from your initial post.

As I read the manual, you should expect to have to rewind the film in order to "reset" the camera when the batteries die mid-roll.

I think that opening the back of the camera is what causes it to reset.

 

[mauro35]

I see. Sorry if the first post was not clear. I was surprised by the behavior of the camera, since it happened to me several times to have the batteries run out mid-roll and just changing them brought everything back to normal. This is the first time I was actually forced to rewind.

 

[MattKing]

I see. Sorry if the first post was not clear. I was surprised by the behavior of the camera, since it happened to me several times to have the batteries run out mid-roll and just changing them brought everything back to normal. This is the first time I was actually forced to rewind.

I would guess that in those previous cases there was enough left in the batteries to advance the film before and re-cock the shutter before the camera shut down due to low batteries.

 

[mauro35]

That might have actually been the case if I remember right. Well, it is good this is normal and there is nothing wrong with the camera. Now I know how to prevent it. Thank you!

 

[Nehalem501]

I believe an Elan 7 is the same as an EOS 30, and I have one so I might help.

In the darkroom just open the camera and manually rewind the film. Then when just the leader is out turn the lights back on, put your film inside the camera normally and shoot with the cap still on the lens (the purpose here is to not re-expose the existing photos) until you're on the right frame. There is a system that counts the sprocket holes on this camera so you'll be precisely on the next frame to the one you shot before if the frame number you remember is right.

(if you enable the feature that leaves the leader out when the camera rewinds the film, you can change films anytime you want instead of having to finish each roll of film before shooting another. You just have to remember the frame position when you put the film back in the camera to not make unintentional double exposures or empty frames)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mauro35]

Thank you! I think I will keep the custom function to leave the leader out enabled at all times. Very often I am out photographing and do not have a darkroom at hand.

 

[Nehalem501]

You're welcome
Oh I've forgotten to tell you that this feature works only on the manual modes (P, Tv, Av, M).
One day I pushed the button to rewind film while being on automatic and the leader wasn't out...
Took some time for me to figure out what was wrong.