Originally posted by Jonathan Mac Lots of the electronic Minoltas suffer from capacitor failures but I understand they can be quite easily replaced.
Many EOS film cameras eat through batteries even when turned off and I'm lead to believe that's also a capacitor problem, though there's much less information on it online than there is about the Minolta problems. It's a shame as I've bought a few and would love to know which capacitors to replace in order to fix them.
I currently have my eye on an EOS 300X with grip that's not far from where I live but I'm isolating as I have covid so can't get there to check it out.
In the early 90s, when I worked as the "no, your warranty does not cover dropping your AE1 in a vat of spaghetti sauce" guy at a camera repair shop, we did a lot of "rapid battery drain".
Some cameras could just fix a capacitor, but a lot of them needed a whole new circuit board.
Most of the cameras I remember were Canons (if I remember right, they tended to crack across the main board), but all brands did it to some level.
I expect most of those have been thrown away long since, so the ones we're seeing now are failing for different reasons.
And whether it was their shorter time in the field (at the time), improved reliability, or some other reason, the autofocus cameras had far fewer problems like that.
I suspect it was a combination of shorter time in the field and the manufacturers really getting the hang of making electronic cameras...
-Eric