Evert Potgieter wrote:
When you guys refer to battery drain on the OM2/OM4's being very high
what do you mean precisely? Does new batteries run out in a week, a
month, months or what? Would be interesting to get it quantified.
====================================================================
Evert, just to put the record straight, the battery drain problem
applies to the OM-2S (Spot/Program), the OM-3 and the OM-4. The later
OM-3Ti, OM-4T and OM-4Ti models have very low drain, as do the previous
OM-2 and 2n models. There are some later versions of the OM-4 that have
been "cured" in this respect, by a modification of the circuit.
The battery drain of the troublesome models (OM-2S, OM3 and earlier
OM4) is due to a current-thirsty cicuit with no OFF switch. The
quiescent current can be enough to drain the batteries in 2 to 6
months, even if the camera is never used. I don't know why there is
such a variation and it seems to happen even between different cameras
of the same model. The 2S is generally considered to be the worst
offender; in the case of my 2S, batteries last 4 months with moderate
use but I know of worse examples. Things that drain the battery
excessively include:
a) using dedicated flash, especially if the flash is left switched on
for a long period whilst attached to the camera, if the camera uses the
green 'flash ready' LED (there was an improvement that could be made,
with a red LED that used the flash batteries instead of the camera
batteries); I know this applies to the 2S but I don't know about the
other models
b) using the viewfinder illumination light
c) if the shutter button is pressed inadvertantly, e.g. while the
camera is in a bag, which activates the display for half a minute or so
and increasing the battery current
d) very long exposures in auto mode.
There is no way to prevent the quiescent current, except by
disconnecting the batteries when the camera is not in use. Some people
switch to the red (mechanical) 1/60 or B speeds when putting the camera
away, to avoid c) above. This does not switch off the battery circuit,
however.
Failure of the batteries in the OM-2S happens without warning. Even if
you've just tested the batteries with the 'test' switch, the next
exposure can still fail, leaving the mirror locked up until you can
change the batteries. Some people have become so exasperated by this
that they have abandoned the 2S altogether (I've come close to that
myself, at times, even though I really like the 2S in other respects).
Always carry spare batteries!
All of the above applies with silver oxide batteries (e.g. 357, SR44),
by the way. The use of alkaline batteries (e.g. LR44) just makes
everything worse and also leads to inaccurate exposures because the
voltage of alkaline cells declines with usage. Alklines should be
avoided, anyway, because they don't work welll in *any* OM camera.
Hope this helps,
Regards,
=====
Ray
"The trouble with resisting temptation is
you never know when you'll get another chance!"
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