EL-2 Battery Drainage

So I bought this EL-2 body, 50mm f/1.8 lens, and 24mm f/2.8 lens for

a mere $125 at our local pawn shop. The lenses are absolutely

perfect, the body shows some brassing but is otherwise in good

condition.

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I managed to get $35 off the price because the shutter was only

working at one speed. Both the clerk and I thought it was a

mechanical defect with the camera, but I later found out that

replacing the battery gave me all the shutter speeds back, along with

a working light meter.

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I've only had this camera for about 2 weeks with the new battery and

yesterday, I noticed the 'check battery' light on the back no longer

functioned. I thought it was weird, because the light meter still

worked, so I figured the battery check light/switch failed. Later

last night, the light meter quit working - dead battery.

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The battery is in the correct position, I did read that reversing the

battery will drain it in a matter of minutes. It's been indoors for

most of these two weeks, even outdoors the lowest temps it

encountered were in the 40F range. I love this body, but I don't want

to have to buy a new battery for it every 2 weeks. One thought I've

had is that I got a PX-28A battery for it the first time, because I

couldn't find a normal PX-28 battery. Could that be the cause? Any

others ever had this problem?

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Thanks in advance.

I don't have an EL2, but I do have a few thoughts. As you've already discovered, the Alkaline battery is not the best one for the camera (Silver was the 'spec', Lithium is common now as well). The Silver and Lithium batteries are supposed to be quite a bit superior to the Alkaline.

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Second, how fresh was the battery? Was the battery or the package dated? These batteries are getting more obscure, and it's not uncommon for a retailer to have the same batteries on the peg for years. If the dating isn't obvious to you (some manufacturers use obscure codes that the consumer isn't meant to know about), you'll have to either do some web research to 'crack the code' or try to find a dealer who moves a lot of these batteries (and therefore may have fresh ones). The battery may have other uses (medical equipment, for instance); some sources that you might think unlikely may have fresh batteries.

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Of course, your camera may also be broken........ Are the battery terminals on the camera in good shape? Corrosion? One of the scenarios I read about on NikonRepair (a yahoo group) recently had battery corrosion 'migrating' along the wire into the interior of the camera, causing an internal short that drained battery current similar to what you're describing.

Wow - I didn't think of the "A" in PX-28A standing for alkaline. Thanks for pointing that out, that may just be where the difference lies. I actually didn't think to even think about what that "A" stood for. :)

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I replaced it with a silver battery, so hopefully this lasts longer. The terminals in the EL-2 are hard to see, the battery compartment sits behind the lens; you have to remove the lens, lift the mirror out of the way, and the door is on the bottom. I did manage to see a bit down there and all looked clean, so I hope it's just the fact that I didn't use the spec battery.

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Thanks for the help.

I had the same problem with my EL-2, the battery quickly discharged because the light meter stayed on even when the film advance lever was in the off position. The problem was fixed by repairing the switch in the film advance lever. Check to see if your meter is constantly on.