N90S beep near end of roll

[Sycamoe]

OK, Help! Maybe I'm being paranoid but I was shooting a 36 exp roll

with the N90S and studio lights. Everything's dandy until after like

the 33, 34, 35 frames as I recall, I get a beep that I vaguely

remember hearing some other time I used the camera. After the last

frame it did the usual blinking end of roll thing, no beep. The film

rewinds fine. But that beep after the 3 or 4 frames had me spooked.

What was it saying--you're a few frames from the end of the roll!?

Everything was on manual because I used my Sekonic to meter the

lights and set shutter and f-stop accordingly--so it couldn't have

meant anything about exposure. I bought it used but to my knowledge

it was never customized with Photo secretary. I saw nothing after

skimming through the manual twice. What the...?

[erik_loza]

Mine has done that infrequently as well and I believe it's in conjunction with low battery life remaining. The last time it started chirping like that, the batteries were dead enough that it wouldn't rewind the roll. Fresh AA's, no problem. It's puzzling because there's no mention of this phenomenon in Nikon literature, but I do think that's what it's related to.

[garry_teeple1]

As I understand it there is no beeper in the N90s. The N90 had one but it was removed when the N90s came out as for a professional to have his camera beeping would make him look foolish. I have never heard a peep our of my N90s in over eight years.

[Sycamoe]

Hi, Garry

 

I know about the beep function that was omitted from the N90S because of complaints on N90 just for the reason you stated. There is still a beeper IN the 90S however, in fact with software you can program it to sound off for various events or none at all. That's why I'm puzzled. In italics at the bottom of many manual pages it states that you CAN customize audible warnings using photo secretary software. (I sure didn't change settings--don't have the software.)

 

Based on what Eric says I hope my beeping is just a glitch. The darn thing thinks it was reprogrammed??

[hal_bissinger]

Change the batteries. The "beep" is the sound of the motor straining at the end of the roll. This has been well discussed since the N90s was introduced. You can't rely on the battery indicator, it's pretty useless!

[Sycamoe]

I spoke with Nikon tech service (which answered the phone remarkably fast after selecting them in the voice menu) and that definitely sounds right. He was saying that in essence "those last few frames, the roll is very tight," etc. So I guess it's a reliable way of knowing the batteries are dying--too bad the indicator doesn't tell you before the motor does!