Nikon F5 battery drain issue

Recently I picked up a Nikon F5 SLR for a really good price (serial number 307xxxx). The only issue in the listing is that the battery tray lever mechanism was damaged (the tab was disconnected from the latch) but by wiggling it in I was able to get the battery tray to stay inside the camera.

However, after shooting a few rolls of film through it I discovered the camera had another issue, which is likely why the battery door was damaged from constant removal. Apparently, the camera drains the batteries when the camera is turned off and sometimes even during a roll if I put the camera away for a few days. When I measure the voltage, it will have decreased down to around 5v, 8v, or similar. There will be no warning, I will either take the camera out and find out it's dead or it dies instantly when I turn the camera on.

I removed the battery tray from the camera and the batteries have not lost their voltage, but if I store the camera with the batteries in and the power off (displaying the frame counter) the batteries will drain, and the camera works perfectly if I remove the batteries during storage. Is this a known issue and is there anything that could be causing this? Thanks

I've had/have several of these cameras no issues. The original Nikon rechargeable batteries are long since useless. I have had no troubles with Alkaline AAs or even the new rechargeable Panasonic AAs

PurpleCat said:

Recently I picked up a Nikon F5 SLR for a really good price (serial number 307xxxx). The only issue in the listing is that the battery tray lever mechanism was damaged (the tab was disconnected from the latch) but by wiggling it in I was able to get the battery tray to stay inside the camera.

However, after shooting a few rolls of film through it I discovered the camera had another issue, which is likely why the battery door was damaged from constant removal. Apparently, the camera drains the batteries when the camera is turned off and sometimes even during a roll if I put the camera away for a few days. When I measure the voltage, it will have decreased down to around 5v, 8v, or similar. There will be no warning, I will either take the camera out and find out it's dead or it dies instantly when I turn the camera on.

I removed the battery tray from the camera and the batteries have not lost their voltage, but if I store the camera with the batteries in and the power off (displaying the frame counter) the batteries will drain, and the camera works perfectly if I remove the batteries during storage. Is this a known issue and is there anything that could be causing this? Thanks

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I have an F100 w/ the same issue and haven't been able to figure out. Otherwise its perfect

I have too many F5's, but none of them have a battery drain issue. I don't recall ever reading about this being a known issue with these cameras, either.

I'm assuming you're talking about the regular AA battery pack, and not the NiCad rechargeable pack. The NiCad battery packs will almost certainly all be dead by now, if the cells haven't previously been replaced. Old defunct NiCad cells may hold a charge for a few minutes at most, which could explain your issue (if you're using the NiCad pack)

The only other battery issue with the F5 is when using NiMH rechargeable AA batteries. NiMH AA batteries have a nominal voltage of 1.2V each. 8 of these cells gives you a nominal voltage of 9.6V. The AA battery packs for the F5 were intended to be used with AA Alkaline batteries (1.5V each). 8 alkaline batteries would provide nominally 12V. The problem arises due to the low voltage shutoff system in the camera. The camera will disable itself when the voltage drops below around 9.5V, so when you use NiMH batteries you're already very close to the minimum voltage threshold, so you may not get much use before the camera shuts off. That wouldn't explain a sudden drain to 5 or 8V, however.

I think the low voltage shutoff is to prevent the power system from shutting down in the middle of a shutter cycle. This could potentially cause the camera to jam. By setting a low voltage threshold, there's always enough power to complete the cycle, but the camera then disables itself so it can't be damaged. You then need to replace the batteries. That's just my guess, though, I don't know this for a fact.

It sounds like you've got some sort of short that's draining the batteries. The broken carrier lock would indicate drop damage or other mishandling, so an electrical short could be a possible result. Probably not an easy fix, unfortunately.