Five years ago, I moved in with my partner. Seven years before that, a previous partner moved in with me, then a year or two later her mother and son joined us.
Suddenly, I didn't have access to my darkroom (or time to work in there). All my equipment was left more or less where it landed, and only now, twelve years later, am I getting it unpacked after someone else packed it up for my move (because I was working full time; it would have taken me a year to pack everything myself, and I had a month).
And now I've found another reason to prefer old style fully mechanical or meter-only cameras: I've already located at least three 35mm P&S cameras with leaked, corroded batteries inside. One I'm pretty sure I can salvage, one is likely toast, and one in the gray area.
By contrast, my three Copal Square shutter M42 SLRs (one Ricoh Singlex II, one Sears TLS by Ricoh, and one Vivitar, forgot the model but probably also by Ricoh) all apparently still work (and they had zinc-air hearing aid meter batteries in them, so shouldn't have corrosion problems). My 1926/1927 Ica and Zeiss Ideal plate cameras appear unchanged over this time (except I'm missing two of my thirteen plate holders -- they'll turn up, I'm not to the bottom of all the storage containers yet), my Speed Graphic and Graphic view and their lenses are fine. My round dozen box and folding cameras likewise -- as if I put them down yesterday.
I'm afraid to look at the old bulb flashes, though. One, old enough to use screw-base bulbs, I can see had cells left in (though it has no real electronics -- not even a capacitor, as far as I know -- and will probably clean up okay). The others, I don't know for sure. My Sunpak xenon flash is probably done -- I could barely open the battery door and needed needle nose pliers to remove two of the four AA cells.
My Pentax Spotmeter had a corroded 9V, but that's only for the lamp to improve needle and scale visibility, and the corrosion appears to be only at the door; the cell for the meter booster circuit has a zinc-air in the socket, so should still be fine.
There are still at least a couple cameras I haven't looked at, but one is my Pentax Spotmatic SP; its battery situation is the same as the other M42 SLRs; I don't recall precisely what else is still to be seen.
Suddenly, I didn't have access to my darkroom (or time to work in there). All my equipment was left more or less where it landed, and only now, twelve years later, am I getting it unpacked after someone else packed it up for my move (because I was working full time; it would have taken me a year to pack everything myself, and I had a month).
And now I've found another reason to prefer old style fully mechanical or meter-only cameras: I've already located at least three 35mm P&S cameras with leaked, corroded batteries inside. One I'm pretty sure I can salvage, one is likely toast, and one in the gray area.
By contrast, my three Copal Square shutter M42 SLRs (one Ricoh Singlex II, one Sears TLS by Ricoh, and one Vivitar, forgot the model but probably also by Ricoh) all apparently still work (and they had zinc-air hearing aid meter batteries in them, so shouldn't have corrosion problems). My 1926/1927 Ica and Zeiss Ideal plate cameras appear unchanged over this time (except I'm missing two of my thirteen plate holders -- they'll turn up, I'm not to the bottom of all the storage containers yet), my Speed Graphic and Graphic view and their lenses are fine. My round dozen box and folding cameras likewise -- as if I put them down yesterday.
I'm afraid to look at the old bulb flashes, though. One, old enough to use screw-base bulbs, I can see had cells left in (though it has no real electronics -- not even a capacitor, as far as I know -- and will probably clean up okay). The others, I don't know for sure. My Sunpak xenon flash is probably done -- I could barely open the battery door and needed needle nose pliers to remove two of the four AA cells.
My Pentax Spotmeter had a corroded 9V, but that's only for the lamp to improve needle and scale visibility, and the corrosion appears to be only at the door; the cell for the meter booster circuit has a zinc-air in the socket, so should still be fine.
There are still at least a couple cameras I haven't looked at, but one is my Pentax Spotmatic SP; its battery situation is the same as the other M42 SLRs; I don't recall precisely what else is still to be seen.