Chinon CP-5

Hi guys. First of all I need to say that I am a complete beginner, so I apologize for my lack of expertise and ignorance in the matter. I recently bought a Chinon CP-5 (of course second-hand). It looks in a perfect status, but once I inserted the batteries, the Led light who should appear when you press the shutter (in P mode) does not flash.
My question is the following: is there something I can do, or is it going to go to the trash bin? I'd really appreciate any suggestions, or your previous experience.
Thank you very much.

Welcome to Apug!

Maybe you mix up things as you show us the front of the camera.

The LED at the front (as with other SLRs) is to indicate the self-timer being in action. (It only is to flash, when the self timer fucnction has been chosen and the release button having been pushed.)

In your case, after selecting "P" at the mode switch, push the release half way, andf at least one of the LEDs projected into the viewfinder should light up.

If this does not do so:
-) check batteries for right orientation
-) check batteries themselves resp. get fresh ones
-) check batterie contacts, they must have a silver shine when new
--) if there is salt incrustation, ask again
--) if there is other kind of coating, use a glass fibre eraser on the contact parts, if accessible

If all this is in vain, then the fault is at the circuit within the camera and you better get yourself another sample.

Hi, thank you very much for all your answers and help.
I'm aware of it, since I downloaded the manual from butkus. The problem, as you stated, is that I tried everything you suggested me to do, but without any results. So probably the circuits are not working. So you think there is absolutely nothing to do?

There is always something to do. But as you are clueless yet, I assume you lack the capability to go further.

Not knowing the innards of this model, it could be anything, from a bad contact at the release button over a broken wire to a faulty integrated circuit. In any case the local price here in Europe would be a fraction of the hour-rate of a camera repairer, a commercial attempt thus be uneconomic.

You might operate the mode switch and the release button several times in order to clean contacts.


Maybe though another fellow here has an idea of a typical fault and might guide you through a repair attempt. But that all depends on your mechanical and electrical skills and the tools you got.


I know from own experience, having a seemingly mint but dead camera gives you a bad feeling.

This model is a bit weird in that it got no dedicated battery check, but the light metering at program mode is the check. (The shutter speed scale not only has positive values, but an underexposure indicator too, thus with fresh batteries even with the lens cap on there must a led lighting up in the finder, plus the program mode indicator at any lighting.)

Thus you might check the operation at other modes. It might be that just the program mode is failing.

You may want to post(move) this to the 35mm thread I see you have another thread also. The moderators here are very good.