Nikon FA battery drain

[richard crawford]

My Nikon FA has a fault where the camera works fine for a week but the batteries are

drained in that time. Obviously 250 and B work as these are back up speeds. Is the FA

known for this problem?

 

Regards Richard

[mawz]

Not really. Sounds like the meter is not shutting off correctly, likely an issue with the microswitch on the shutter that turns the meter on.

[robatsgh]

Try storing the camera in "B" or "M250". Doing so should shut off any electronics independent of the shutter release meter switch. If your batteries are still draining, then you've got a short somewhere.

[jheimsch]

I recently purchased an FA and in the course of my investigation I read that this battery drain problem was well known and somewhat common during early production FA's. I believe the stated cause was a printed circuit issue, but I am not positive. Later models fixed this issue. I would try another set of batteries before you fixate on it being a camera issue...but if after another 2 batteries it might deemed to be the camera. If it is the printed circuit board you are pretty much S.O.L. as these are almost non-existant.

 

Typical battery life for a camera like this should be about a year I would imagine. The batteries in my FM2n lasted years before I changed them just so they wouldn't die when I wanted to use the camera.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Justin

[michael erlich]

If the problem persists and the camera is not repairable for lack of parts, one solution might be to use an MD-15 motor drive that supplies power to the camera from its AA cells. It's easy to partly pull out the battery tray to prevent power drain when storing the camera.