Pentax 67II Draining Batteries

braxus · Jan 1, 2016

This is the second time this has happened. My Pentax 67II camera is draining the 123 batteries down to zip in a matter of months, and this is it being turned off the whole time. Is this normal for this camera, or do I have a technical problem with the camera causing this? I would think with the switch in off position, and the LCD not on, there should be no drain. Yet I'm going through batteries in this thing like crazy, and the camera is hardly used. My older Pentax 67 from the old design, never had this issue of course. Any ideas?

benjiboy · Jan 1, 2016

It sounds like an electrical fault, I suggest you have a camera technician check it out.

braxus · Jan 1, 2016

No one wants to repair this camera, because its all electronic and there are no parts available for it. Basically means I have to live with the fault. Sad because to buy this camera today, you'd have to spend $900-1500 to get a used one.

Poisson Du Jour · Jan 1, 2016

Store the 67II with the shutter speed set to B or T or X, not to any one shutter speed.

Re the Pentax 6x7 and 67 (mentioned)
There are known problems with both of these bodies too (but very especially the older 6x7 bodies). If the shutter is left cocked for an extended period of time (e.g. shoot, wind-on then nothing), a shutter lag/drag can develop.

Another is storing this camera with the shutter speed left on any setting. It's not a "set and forget and forgiveable" thing. It leads to loss of accuracy of one or more shutter speeds. The fix is to store the camera with B or X selected. "Extended period of time" is e.g. months not weeks. Even if talking about weeks, I don't like any of the cameras left idle.

Whether the above two options could in some way be reflected on the more robust 67II body is not known. Maybe there is a power 'bleed' somewhere in the system because reports of unusual or abnormal battery consumption (compared to the very, very long battery life of the earlier 67 bodies) is not very common. The most I've known is fading of the LCD display (a fault easily fixed by replacement).

It's a bit of a lily-livered response from repairers not interested in repairing these otherwise great cameras that more often than not are proving their reliability and quality over many repeats/upgrades/improvements of an equivalent digital camera! Cannibalism is one choice for repair, but you are simply buying a new (potential) problem to fix an old one.

hsteeves · Jan 1, 2016

it might be wise to just pull the batteries when you not using it and re-install when you carry it out the door.

pentaxuser · Jan 2, 2016

Try asking this question on the Pentax forum. All are Pentax users there. Someone is likely to have an idea of what has gone wrong and which repairers still exist to do a repair.

pentaxuser

sbjornda · Jan 2, 2016

Try storing with the prism off?

I agree that it's best to store it without the battery, but you could also troubleshoot by storing it with the prism off. That might tell you whether the drain is coming from the prism or the body.

Sterling

keechoon · Jan 2, 2016

I have the same draining problem on my Pentax 6x7 MLU body, only way is to remove the battery when it's in the dry cabinet. My Pentax 67II however have the back door problem that resets the film counter to zero when pressure is applied to a certain area....

Sirius Glass · Jan 2, 2016

Welcome to APUG.

The back door problem can be a real pain.

AgX · Jan 2, 2016

Poisson Du Jour said:
Store the 67II with the shutter speed set to B or T or X, not to any one shutter speed.

Another is storing this camera with the shutter speed left on any setting. It's not a "set and forget and forgiveable" thing. It leads to loss of accuracy of one or more shutter speeds.

But how could it do so?

B or T set would mean no electronic delay switched.
X though would mean 1/30 electronic delay switched.

With the main switch off, all circuits would be off too anyway.

Poisson Du Jour · Jan 2, 2016

AgX said:
But how could it do so?

B or T set would mean no electronic delay switched.
X though would mean 1/30 electronic delay switched.

With the main switch off, all circuits would be off too anyway.

No, not all circuits are off as easy as using the switch. The thing is with the solenoid (see below)
This extract that I have obviously copied off a long time ago is from "The Care and Feeding of Pentax 6x7 / 67 cameras" (but the undated weblink delivers a 404 error)
---------------------------------
Shutter speed
Over a long period of time shutter speeds will become inaccurate. It is good practice to switch the shutter speed dial to either X or Bulb and unload the camera of film when it is not planned to be used for some time. This relieves the shutter solenoid of its ready, cocked state, which is another area where shutter activation and shutter speed degradation occur over time.
---------------------------------

ColColt · Jan 3, 2016

It would be nice for the manufacturer's to put warnings such as this in the owner's manual. I don't recall seeing it anywhere but here.

Poisson Du Jour · Jan 3, 2016

ColColt said:
It would be nice for the manufacturer's to put warnings such as this in the owner's manual. I don't recall seeing it anywhere but here.

I believe it does appear in the 6x7 (67) owner's manual (I'm looking for mine in two parts on 6 computers at the moment...), and that the advice is well-grounded.

ColColt · Jan 3, 2016

I misplaced my manual long ago. Advice that will be henceforth, well heeded.

Sirius Glass · Jan 3, 2016

ColColt said:
I misplaced my manual long ago. Advice that will be henceforth, well heeded.

Get another one here:

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/

Remember to send in $3US if the download is useful. He volunteers his time and money.

Poisson Du Jour · Jan 3, 2016

Never heard of butkus.org. I think my manuals came from the Dante Stellar or Luminous Landscape sites around 2010-2011
Page 23 of the manual references my remark in post #11 re cocked shutter and shutter speeds.

AgX · Jan 3, 2016

I read the manual as well looked into the wiring. To no avail. As said that warning makes no sense to me.

(But I got only got the one for the 6x7.)

ColColt · Jan 4, 2016

This is the same manual I have around here but it's disappeared. Thanks for the link on that one.

http://www.butkus.org/chinon/pentax/pentax_6x7/pentax_6x7.htm

DREW WILEY · Jan 4, 2016

Is this in the studio or outdoors? I always kept a spare warm battery for my P67 in my pocket during the winter. For the older version, prior
to the II, they even made a remote battery cable for a pocket battery.

trendland · Apr 19, 2017

I depends on how you operate your camera - the battery live.

If I would have a shooting with 20-30 rolls 120 or 220 films and the batteries
are not absolute fresh I would have some
new with me.

And these new ones should live for more
than one year.

Or this does it say better - often I take
the P67II batteries for my nikon because
the nikons are low every 4 month.

But the P67II is using batteries for 1-2
years I guess - when it is not in use
in massive ways.

with regards

trendland · Apr 19, 2017

braxus said:
This is the second time this has happened. My Pentax 67II camera is draining the 123 batteries down to zip in a matter of months, and this is it being turned off the whole time. Is this normal for this camera, or do I have a technical problem with the camera causing this? I would think with the switch in off position, and the LCD not on, there should be no drain. Yet I'm going through batteries in this thing like crazy, and the camera is hardly used. My older Pentax 67 from the old design, never had this issue of course. Any ideas?

Sorry misunderstanding by translation you are in
use with the camera in that massive way.

Ok - never worry about it - should be normal (short battery live)

100 films in a few weeks in cold outdor ?

And you will need new batteries.
For me it is not so - because of my nikon
so the P67II will often spend live to
35mm equipment.

with regards

Sirius Glass · Apr 20, 2017

Until you find a solution, you may want to remove the batteries when you are not using the camera. Besides if the battery is drained to exhaustion you would not want the battery to leak in the camera.

trendland · Apr 20, 2017

Sirius Glass said:
Until you find a solution, you may want to remove the batteries when you are not using the camera. Besides if the battery is drained to exhaustion you would not want the battery to leak in the camera.

Indeed the most danger with common batteries in the past.
But it may be not the gratest trouble nowadays.
I don't know if there is still a danger of
leak with lithium cells?
Perhaps of cause - but the ultimate
MCA with old cells is suddenly exhaustion of only one of these cells.
Or the mix up of fresh and newest ones.

This will cause normaly no problems.
But what is meant with "normaly" today?

It you use additional recharcheble cr123
P67II need two of them - so you have 6Volt. - it could be a realistic risc.

They can explode inside the camera.

Not so bad as fireworks but enought -
to that heavy camera.

Never heard about but possible in worst
case of bad luck.

It is then the B.C.S. !

The B.urning C.amera S.yndrome

with regards

Pentax 67II Draining Batteries

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