Nikon F3HP Broken? The fix is?

[m._howard_edwards]

I took the camera out of the bag. It had the lens cap on, and the

on/off switch on, too. It did not work. It worked fine 7 days ago. I

replaced the batteries. It did not work. I tested the batteries; they

tested O.K.. I let the camera rest with fresh batteries. It did not

work. I installed the motor drive MD-4, and I shot a roll of film. I

tried again without the MD-4; it did not work. Am I overlooking

something, here? If it is broken is there a quick fix?

[manel_soria]

If with MD4 it works fine, then it looks as if contacts of the F3 battery are damaged or dirty. Have you tried cleaning them and also the battery ?

[alfred_alfred]

Let's carry out a routine check.

 

1) The On Off level. Play with it and see if it works. I hardly heard of battery area damaged. More likely is the On Off level.

 

2) Put on your MD4 and try to fire using the cable release attached to the F3 Body release. Inorder to fire thru the cable release you NEED to on the On off level at the F3 body.

 

Don't worry sometimes it might be the contact point needs cleaning.

Have failth in your F3...they are build to out last you.

[m._howard_edwards]

Manel, the battery connections and compartment were pristine;I cleaned them anyway - and the battery. The camera would not work.

 

Alfred - Repeatedly moving the on/off switch did nothing. With the MD-4 attached, a cable release will fire the camera. Apparently a connection from the internal battery has failed??? The MD-4 battery pack appears to bypass the internal battery. Thanks to you both for suggestions, but the camera still does not work.

 

Howard

[wayne_murphy8]

Unhappily, the fix is Service>Repair>Cash.

[lex_jenkins]

Howard: Yup, the MD-4 bypasses the in-camera battery entirely. You don't even need to install that pair of button cells in the camera body. In fact, it's probably better to leave 'em out if you use the MD-4 most of the time, as I do. I usually keep the button cells in my camera bag in case I want to use the F3HP without the motor drive, which is pretty seldom.

 

About the only other suggestions I can offer before you have a tech look at it would be:

 

1. Make sure you're using MS76 or equivalent silver oxide button cells. No alkalines. I don't think lithiums are recommended either. The camera might function with other than silver oxide batteries, but it may not function or meter correctly.

 

2. Check the tension in the battery compartment. With a lot of cameras that use a flat spring instead of coiled springs for battery contacts the flat spring can lose tension over time. Some folks try to cure this by overtightening the battery cover. Wrong solution. Later on it can be next to impossible to remove the cover. Use something small like a toothpick and pry the flat spring up *very* gently and just a little bit. Sometimes that will restore good contact and fix the problem.

 

3. Positive side of the button cells go toward the inside of the camera body.

 

Pretty obvious stuff, I know, but sometimes it's the obvious we overlook.

 

BTW, a sudden "failure" or erratic behavior of the MD-4 may simply indicate it's time to change the AA batteries. The motor drive doesn't slow down or have a low battery indicator so it's easy to mistake the problem for something serious. The first set of AA batteries in my MD-4 lasted two or three years. Then the shutter release button on the motor drive suddenly quit responding. If I removed the batteries and put the same set back in, the MD-4 would work for a while, then quit again. I'm a bit slow on the uptake so it took me a while to consider just changing the batteries.

[m._howard_edwards]

Well, Lex, the third set of silver cells worked. Are we talking about shelf life of batteries here? Manufacturing tolerances? Can the circuitry be that sensitive? I always thought that 3 volts, was 3 volts, but it appears that the F3 is very discriminating - or not. At any rate it is fixed, and I thank you all for your inputs; I hope they might have also helped someone else.

[lex_jenkins]

I'll hedge a couple of bets.

 

One, a lot of batteries are made in China now. Quality control still varies wildly for certain products, especially batteries.

 

Two, who knows how long those batteries are sitting around and how accurate those "sell by" dates marked on the package really are?

 

It's too bad that lithium cells aren't approved as a direct replacement for some silver oxide batteries. In the devices for which they are okay as direct replacements I've had no problems. For example, even tho' Olympus doesn't official approve of lithiums in their XA series compact cameras, I use 'em anyway. They seem to last forever in all kinds of temperatures (I keep my XA2 in the glovebox of my truck). I don't mind testing 'em on an inexpensive camera but I don't want to risk lithiums in my F3HP, and I doubt that Nikon will give official approval to any change from factory specs.

 

Anyway, good news that your F3 is working. Enjoy.

[guy_p]

My MD4 never leaves the camera so I don't have to worry about those little batteries on the F3. However, on the FM2n I do, but I do a couple of fiddly things to ensure the batts are 'at their best' so to speak - before inserting them I give them a good rub, both sides neg and pos, on my jeans or some other rough fabric to sort of clean them. I never handle with bare fingers - always with a hanky or a tissue. Putting them in upside down is easy LOL.

[m._howard_edwards]

Lex -

The F3HP Instruction Manual says the 3v. lithium or 2-1.55v. silver-oxide batteries are O.K. To quote the specs: Two 1.55 V silver-oxide cells (Eveready EPX76, D76 or equivalent),two 1.5V alkaline-manganese cells or one 3V lithium battery...

 

Guy -

I can now very well appreciate the battery installation dance you do.

[Robert_Lai]

A couple of points. The MD-4 speaks to the camera by way of contacts at the base of the camera, through the infamous hole under the film cartridge. Those contacts also provide the camera with power.<p>You can use lithium batteries in the F3. I put a 1/3N 3v lithium can battery in the battery chamber. I've had a few occasions where the MN-2 NiCd pack in the MD-4 gives out while I'm shooting. Having the battery in the camera means that I can still have full camera functions even if the motor is dead. Lithiums last virtually forever if not used, so there's little harm from my point of view in keeping a can in the battery compartment. I wouldn't put a silver oxide battery pair in there, due to the risk of leakage.