The owner told me the battery comment was a mistake. She hasn't used the equipment in over a year and got the new AAs she bought for it mixed up in her mind with batteries she bought for another camera. After speaking with her for more than an hour, I'm confident she knows her stuff.
Big Analog
She let me take everything home to test the gear out, which I did Sunday afternoon. The shutter/mirror operation is far less obnoxious than I assumed. In fact, it's the automatic film advance that really grabs your attention. Autofocus was fairly quick and assured. The manual focus and zoom rings on the 45-85mm are uninspiring to operate (certainly not Limited quality) but functional. Bulb mode worked as did the self-timer. I tried all the metering and exposure modes as well as +1 and -1 EV. I think the only things I didn't try were multiple exposures on one frame, exposure bracketing, AF-C, and continuous drive...all things I rarely use.
My single biggest problem is the viewfinder. It does not have an eyecup and the eye relief is rather short. I struggled trying to see the current exposure settings at the bottom in landscape orientation and had trouble seeing the whole frame in portrait. I may ask this in a different thread, but does anyone have any suggestions about how I could improve the viewfinder?
It's certainly a system that's seen use and I wouldn't grade it "excellent." However, nothing is abused or obviously broken. I was more surprised at the bulk of the lens over the bulk of the body.
I dropped off my first roll of Portra 400VC this morning and it should be ready for pick-up tomorrow afternoon! Time to see if my shop can do decent scans.