Bessa R3A battery drain?

[Nicolás Raddatz]

Hi all,
I acquired a Bessa R3A a couple of months ago new from B&H. I've hardly run 4 rolls of film on it, and I'm already seeing 1 and 2000 blinking slowly, and at times the shutter won't fire at all. As far as I understand, this is an indication that the battery is about to die. Is this normal? I would have expected much longer battery life, this makes no sense to me.

Thanks

 

[rbiemer]

The batteries that come with new cameras are typically not the best and have likely been sitting around for a while.
A new set should last longer.
The other variable is if you're shooting lots of long exposures; that will drain the batteries quicker too.
Rob

 

[Nicolás Raddatz]

Thanks for replying. No long exposures, really. Just very simple snapshots, if you know what i mean. I'll have a go at another set of batteries, but this really got me itching...