Fujica ST701 metering problem - help!

<p>I picked up a nice Fujica ST701 on a whim. Ended up it had a nice Takumar 55mm f2 lens on it. Everything seems to work.<br>

I cleaned out the battery compartment and tried some zinc-air batteries. Unfortunately the meter seems to max out on every setting. Even f22 and 1/1000 iso50 show over exposure. <br>

Has anyone had this problem and know how to resolve it?<br>

THX.</p>

<p>I believe there must be a dead short that bypasses the SBC meter circuit when you press the stop down/meter button on the front of the camera. Probably no way to fix it other than open up the camera and look for it.<br /> Of course, the ST701 can be used with a hand held meter or an exposure table since shutter speeds are mechanically timed. Somewhat more inconvenient but you could at least use it if it is too expensive to fix the meter.</p>

<p>As an aside, I believe the ST701 used regular silver oxide batteries such as the MS76, two of them. They are 1.5v each, more than the 1.4v output of a zinc air. I do however think that is not the source of the meter problem.</p>

<p>Yes, I think the slight extra voltage wouldn't cause your problem, sounds like short circuit and may not be a economical fix. As john says, you can use the camera with guesstimation or another meter. Well worth persisting with it as you have a very nice combination there, capable of really good pictures.</p>

<p>Yeah, not a battery problem. The use of zinc air cells (with slightly lower voltage) would give a lower than normal meter reading. Does the lens stop down when you press the meter switch? Most of the ST series took meter readings at shooting aperture so if the lens isn't stopping down then the camera is measuring light at f2 regardless of the aperture setting. The top ST (801 maybe?) did offer open aperture metering, but only with Fuji's lenses.</p>

<p>The ST601, 701, 605, 605n, use stop-down metering. The ST801, 901, 705, 705W, AZ-1, use open-aperture metering.</p>