At 06:21 11/23/02, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
Note to John Lind: The OM-2s should be listed along with the OM-4
(instead of OM-2, 2n) as needing silver oxide. My OM-2s will kill a pair
of alkaline batteries in 6-8 weeks just sitting on the shelf. Silver
oxides last 6-9 months even with usage.
I'm kicking myself for having forgotten to list the OM-2S[sp] body in the
same class as the OM-4[t] for being finicky about battery voltage. I know
all too well as I have one in addition to the OM-4 body. IMHO use of
lithiums and alkalines is a major reason for significant numbers of OM-2S
and OM-4 bodies being mis-labeled "battery eaters."
Additional notes:
(1) Keeping the shutter speed ring in one of the two red mechanical
positions during camera storage only prevents the viewfinder LCD display
and illuminator from being inadvertently activated. It does not turn the
camera completely "off" but reduces it to the very small "standby"
drain. Even so, I still do this as the depressed viewfinder illuminator
button has occurred a couple of times while the camera was stored in my
bag. This can kill the batteries in a few hours. Likewise, using the
viewfinder illuminator heavily will significantly shorten battery life.
(2) Turn off the beeper. I don't believe it's as bad as the illuminator,
but it shortens life. Personally I've found it of very limited
value. Under some conditions it can be obtrusive.
(3) Heavy use of the self-timer for pre-fire stop-down and MLU shortens
life. I avoid using it unless there is a very compelling reason to. In
general, photographs requiring this level of camera vibration are rare. It
is a ligitimate concern for astro-photography and other work using
telescopes, extremely long lenses (400mm and longer), or very high
magnification macros with static subject material.
(4) OM-2S only:
Avoid leaving a dedicated flash turned on for hours on end with a green
flash-ready LED OM-2S. The camera powers the viewfinder flash-ready
LED. (Those with the red LED have been converted to flash powering
it.) If you must work in this mode, get a non-dedicated flash and use the
flash sensor in a "Normal Auto" mode. My green LED OM-2S is fairly robust
to this for wedding work *if* I remember to turn the flash off when it's
not going to be used for more than 10 minutes or longer. After consciously
doing this for a couple weddings doing this becomes automatic (along with
turning it back on again and continuously scanning other camera settings).
-- John
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