MP1 and P8D for 645

[gavin]

My 645 keeps going to sleep. I have the MP-1 attached to it. ? Once it goes to sleep the only way to reset it is to physically disconnect the MP-1 from the body and reconnect it. Has any one else run into this and if so, what is the solution.

 

[jvirtue]

I had a similar problem which became major. this happened a couple of times, then it started displaying EEEE in the shutter speed display when it happened. I had it replaced by Kyocera, the next day, without question. BTW, the newer body isn't as greedy with batteries and is noticeably quieter.

 

[Colin645]

John, Which body did they replace? The camera or the MP1. And what are serial nos. of "new" bodies?

 

[richl]

Like Colin, I was intrigued to read from John Virtue that Contax had replaced the body of the 645, so I rang Kyocera in the UK where I live and they informed that they have not replaced the camera body. What they have done is address the poor battery life so that "later models" (they did not specify a date that the later bodies were made) have a better battery life, and not the four or five rolls of 120 film the camera ate through when it was first launched. So, rather than a new body, what Kyocera has done is tweeked the electronics to improve battery life. At least the company is listening to its users.

 

[gavin]

John, thanks for the input, I'll send it in ASAP, turns out my warrantee is up this month
Just to make this clear though, in your case it was not the grip that was the problem, it was the body. If that is the case how did you determine it was the body and not the grip?

 

[utkinpol]

Speaking about battery problem - I just accomplished a little project of my own.
I got 2 Powersonic SLA batteries and a charger (you can look at them here - http://www.gotbatteries.com/SLABatteries.asp)

The jack and cords came from Radioshack – you`ll need a B size connector for Contax 645.
Now I can power up my flash and camera from the same or from 2 different SLA batteries without any problem.

Price of entire project was about of $50 including everything.

 

[utkinpol]

These are the models that I got:

http://www.gotbatteries.com/Productpage.asp?ProductNum=35L133S1
http://www.gotbatteries.com/Productpage.asp?ProductNum=35L135S1


It looks like Panasonic has a model of same capacity and with 0.98 pounds weight but I didn`t find no one available.