Hi,

I was offered a Minox 35 GT for 50$CAN. I had no opportunities to test or play with the camera. All I know is that it does not work because of an electrical shorcut (a qualified technician made the diagnosis). Does that mean anything to any of you? Does this sound like something common, repairable?

Sorry, I do not have more info.

JP

-- JP Le Cruguel (lecruguel@epid.jgh.mcgill.ca), May 28, 2001

Answers

lets see an all elctronic camera with some sort of electrical fault, if the technican was able to diagnose the fault but did not fix it I would suspect that it would require a new circuit board and would be either unobtainable or economically non viable, I don't know of any repair techs who will diagnose a fault without a minimum charge to discourage us from getting them to find the problem and then we easily fix it I would avoid

-- E M Griffiths (alchemy@connect.ab.ca), May 29, 2001.

The term (at least in U.S. English) is not "electrical shortcut," but "electrical short circuit," sometimes "shortened" to "short." It means that, somewhere in the electronics of the camera, two wires have come together which shouldn't have. (They don't have to be wires, they could be a conducting strip and a metal piece in the camera.) Electrical current takes the path of least resistance. It will flow through the short circuit, rather than through where it is supposed to go. Also, a short circuit will wear down a battery faster, or burn electrical components, or trigger circuit breakers designed to avoid burning components.

Short circuits can be easy or difficult to fix. I've fixed some (at least temporarily) by doing nothing more than placing a tiny piece of paper between two components.

My conclusion is the same as that of the first answer your received -- if a qualified technician diagnosed the problem but did not fix it, it is not an easy problem to fix.

-- Hector Javkin (h.javkin@ieee.org), May 29, 2001.

I think the Minox can be fixed, since the current Minox 35 G-series is very similar to the GT, and I don't see why the shorted part can't be replaced. However, the repair can be expensive. I was given an old GT and I sent it to the authorized agent for a CLA; they had to send it back to Germany for the job and it costed about $130. Anyway, why don't you post your question at Martin Tai's Minox Photography, he really is the expert on Minox cameras.

-- Hoyin Lee (leehoyin@hutchcity.com), May 29, 2001.

You can also post your question at Martin Tai's Minox FAQ website.

-- Hoyin Lee (leehoyin@hutchcity.com), May 29, 2001.