Re: [Leica] TTL battery drain

[TTAbrahams@aol.com]

Francis, you could have a problem with the checking circuit of the TTL. 
Unscrew the battery compartment lid and take out the batteries. Then take a 
pen or pencil and run it over the two silvery dots at the bottom of the 
battery chamber. If you can feel that these are above the level of the base 
of the battery chamber, lightly push on them so that they slide below the 
base. I improved upon that by taking a small piece of thin, electrical tape 
and punched out a small circle and stuck it over the two contacts. They are 
part of a circuit that the technicians use a probe on. They have no function 
for the metering circuit and if they are too "high" they draw current from 
the batteries and will drain them quickly. My TTL 0,85 used to through a set 
of batteries every week or so, but after the 'surgery" they have lasted for 
several months. I suspect that these contacts are only a push-fit into the 
base and vibrations from air-travel or cars can cause them to shift slightly 
and cause the drain. If the problem persists even after the adjustment it 
would indicate that there is something else wrong and the camera should 
probably go to an authorised Leica service for checking. There was a batch of 
TTL's that had what I suspect was a ground fault that would drain batteries 
far to quickly and Leica did fix these as they came in. Well, count yourself 
lucky though, all that dies on the M6 when the batteries goes is the meter, 
the rest of the camera keeps on working and one can always estimate exposures 
and either use the little chart in the filmbox or "sunny 16" rules. I have to 
admit that these days I do carry a couple of spare 76's batteries in my 
camera bag. Prior to the TTL's I used to change batteries on the 1st of 
January and 1st of July every year and not carry spares at all. Well, we are 
getting more dependent of these circuits, whether we like it or not. Could 
explain the popularity of M2's and M3's even today!
Tom A