Technical Hiccup with G2

[sooner]

Hi Folks,

Just a day after seeing the thread here about CLA'ing a G2, mine did something scary. It wouldn't turn on. I turned it on with almost new batteries, and nothing happened: no focus, no distance indicator, nada. I removed the batteries and put them back in, and although that didn't work immediately I did eventually get the camera to come alive and focus. Does anyone have familiarity with this, and what it means? Thanks.....John.

 

[akptc]

John, I haven't had problems with my G2 but the battery compartment in my T2 got loose (not that one could tell by looking at it). Sent it to TOCAD only to find out that they charge $165 just to look at it 🙂. They fixed it and the T2 is as new. Sorry, wish I could help more.

 

[Issy]

Did you try cleaning the battery contacts?

 

[Socke]

Andy, could you explain? My TVS behaves weird with batteries I measure at 3volts, when I switch it on it focuses but doesn't release the shutter and the status information in the finder turn off, when I switch it off an on it advances the film.
I thought it was an empty batterie and I put the spare in I bought some two years ago with the same result. Then I measured the voltage which seems to be fine at 3 volts but my meter may be off.

 

[rhogg]

I have had this happen to me. It was very puzzling and I eventually got the camera working again by taking out the batteries and putting them back in again. It was something pretty simple/stupid like tripping the shutter with the lens cap on and the camera hanging up...or did I "fix" it by changing the shooting mode...or the exposuire compensation needed another shot...:bang:

Anyways its was pretty scary but there have been no ill effects since, about 10-15 rolls. Had me hooped for a day and a half though

 

[sooner]

Thanks for the ideas and condolences. It is scary when your $900 camera goes weird on you, definitely the most I've ever spent on a camera but I have to say these lenses are the best, sharpest things I've ever used, also. Hopefully it was just a blip...a little ghost in the machine. --John

 

[akptc]

Socke, my T2's symptoms were very similar to yours, i.e. erratic behavior. I could not find any physical signs of damage but then I noticed that the battery screw-in cap just didn't feel "right" going in, not sure how to explain it. On a hunch, I sent it to TOCAD and indeed it proved to be something loose in or around the battery compartment. I believe they replaced the whole subassembly. I wish I’d had the luck that rhogg here had with his Contax…

 

[jlw]

If resetting the camera by removing the batteries and replacing them doesn't work, try using a different lens.

Sounds weird, but during my G2-using era I got into a situation in which one particular lens would cause my G2 body to freeze up; turned out to be some incompatibility involving the ROM chip.

Unfortunately, this happened during a very expensive week-long workshop; fortunately, my G1 body wasn't affected (go figure!) so I limped through the rest of the week on that, and Contax later fixed the G2 under warranty.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

I remember vaguely how my own G1 froze or died on me precisely because, at one point, I completely forgot to remove the lens cap. The shutter, obediently, tripped open, and stayed open for a while. I turned it off, and then wouldn't turn on. I think my first impulse was to get the batteries out and put them back in and that did it.

Sorry if it's not that useful... but it's all I remember now. And it was freaky, because I had had the camera for a couple of months, using it almost all the time.