Steve Goldstein
Newbie
Yesterday I had a new-to-me experience that I thought I'd post for posterity and comments.
It had been a while since I'd used my Mamiya 7 (not II) backup body so I decided to take it out for a spin. I took the battery from my "daily driver" Mamiya 7 and popped it in the backup, operated the shutter a couple of dozen times (seemed OK), loaded a roll of Kentmere, and headed outside. All was well for the first 8 shots, all shot in manual-exposure mode so I could cycle through the speeds, but I noticed an unusual sound on the last two shots (one at 1/250, one at 1/500) as if the shutter was running really slow. After I finished the roll and unloaded the camera I fired the shutter a few times - all speeds seemed fine except the two fastest, both of which behaved like maybe 2 seconds. I also noticed the blinking warning light in the lower left of the finder, which according to the manual indicates a low battery.
I put in my "new" lithium battery spare and everything worked normally. The old alkaline battery went into the trash, the lithium cell moved into the daily driver, and the backup went back onto the shelf. I would have put the dd on the shelf and switched to the backup but the dd is loaded with a partially used roll.
The Mamiya 7 (and II) manuals don't say anything about slow/hanging shutter speeds with a low battery, at least not that I could find. I guess when the battery voltage is low enough all manner of weird things can happen.
I've also posted this on Photrio to get the word out.
It had been a while since I'd used my Mamiya 7 (not II) backup body so I decided to take it out for a spin. I took the battery from my "daily driver" Mamiya 7 and popped it in the backup, operated the shutter a couple of dozen times (seemed OK), loaded a roll of Kentmere, and headed outside. All was well for the first 8 shots, all shot in manual-exposure mode so I could cycle through the speeds, but I noticed an unusual sound on the last two shots (one at 1/250, one at 1/500) as if the shutter was running really slow. After I finished the roll and unloaded the camera I fired the shutter a few times - all speeds seemed fine except the two fastest, both of which behaved like maybe 2 seconds. I also noticed the blinking warning light in the lower left of the finder, which according to the manual indicates a low battery.
I put in my "new" lithium battery spare and everything worked normally. The old alkaline battery went into the trash, the lithium cell moved into the daily driver, and the backup went back onto the shelf. I would have put the dd on the shelf and switched to the backup but the dd is loaded with a partially used roll.
The Mamiya 7 (and II) manuals don't say anything about slow/hanging shutter speeds with a low battery, at least not that I could find. I guess when the battery voltage is low enough all manner of weird things can happen.
I've also posted this on Photrio to get the word out.