Battery chamber

I left my minolta X-700 for a while and the battery leaked and the camera won't fire. What is the best way of cleaning it and can the camera be saved?

White vinegar applied on a Q-Tip does a pretty good job of cleaning off the dried acid. You may also need to clean any corrosion from the contacts/spring with a small wire brush or contact cleaning file. If the camera still doesn't work then it may have leaked through the battery compartment and eaten through the wire connection on the back, in which case you may be able to re-solder it. If it's badly damaged then it may need replacement with a part from another camera.

Many thanks for that information

Ordinary carbon-zinc batteries are acidic, alkaline are alkaline.

 

The acid tends to eat through steel in the battery case

(it is has a steel case) and form rust.

 

Ones I have had with leaky alkaline batteries had deposits

(which might be KOH) on the contacts, usually water soluble.

 

I haven't had one leak so much that it got so far into the device.

 

Many batteries have a warranty such that they will repair or replace a

damaged device. I have not tried sending in a new or old camera.

 

I did once send in a toy, which they decided that they couldn't fix,

but if I bought a new one, and sent in the receipt, they would refund it.

They did that. (It might have been about $16.)

 

I suspect I wouldn't try sending in a camera, but it is your choice.

Batteries are LR44

If the wire has corroded off the battery contact I find it best not to try to re-solder it direct. Instead find a short length of very fine wire from an audio cable or similar, solder one end of that to the battery contact, and solder the other end on to the corroded wire, stripped back to clean metal (if there's any left, often the corrosion travels all the way up the wire).