[gregglewa]

I have an ist DL and I tried to turn it on today and nothing.

Flipped it over to take out batteries and latch was stuck.

Where two of the batteries sit, the plastic was warped. I fiddled, took out some screws and broke the latch. Plastic appears to be melted there and even with bottom plate off, battery cover won't budge.

I will take it in for repairs Monday, but lady on the phone said melted plastic at contacts is not a good sign.

My question is has anyone seen this happen on a camera? Is it toast?
Is an upgrade in my future?

[mlatour]

I've had batteries short circuit themselves together inside my Nikon SB-80 flash,
same as you the plastic cover/contacts had melted badly out of shape.

Slowly re-shaped the latch to fit back in place with a candle,
no further electrical/electronic damage was apparent with the flash
as it still function fine many years later.

An important note for those using AA batteries, check the outer plastic wrap/label
for splits/tears, as this thin wrap also acts as an electrical insulator!

Your camera might still be repairable, but labor fees will be the deciding factor for upgrading
as used K-x's can be found a quite a good price in the marketplace.

Michel

[gregglewa]

...

An important note for those using AA batteries, check the outer plastic wrap/label
for splits/tears, as this thin wrap also acts as an electrical insulator!


Michel

Good to know about the batteries.
Sure enough, the battery where this happened is totally void of wrap!

I'll give the reshaping a try. As it is now, I doubt the battery is making any contact.

[ChipB]

Bummer about the battery door - if you can't make yours work, you might do a search for "pentax battery door" on eBay - an ist DL door is listed. Good luck.

[gregglewa]

Well, after taking a long time getting the parts from Pentax (eBay listings had just the plastic battery door part, I needed a few more bits) a local camera shop fixed it up and gave the old *ist a nice cleaning. Good as new.