Yashica T-Zoom aka Yashica T4-Zoom, Kyocera T-Zoom, T4-zoom

There are so many things that can go bad on a P&S camera, Marc. Electronics are one of the biggest issues, what with sometimes sub-standard parts installed, or moisture invading the camera shorting things out. Batteries also can corrode circuits far from the battery well. Then there is the fact they are mostly made of plastics, and not the good kind like what is used now. It gets old and brittle and screw posts can break off, or a film drive gear will crack and jam up the works. Plus they were not designed to last for a long time, as it was hoped by the manufacturers that folks would either upgrade to the interchangeable lens systems, or replace their old P&S with the latest model. Most of the service manuals then would have been only supplied to the factory repair centers, and even then they usually only worked on them if they were still in warranty because otherwise the owners didn't think it was worth the price to fix them. Most camera repair places I knew that would work on P&S cameras only did so if they had a bunch of parts donors that had been traded in on better cameras. But first they had to be able to convince the owner to pay the going rate.

As to your camera, since it just stopped, I'd say it's an electronics fault. Now that could include something as simple as an actuator button is not being pressed (as when you close the back door after loading film for auto winding), or as complicated as a flexible PC board has cracked. Try finding a replacement for that! Anything in the controlling chip set and its auxiliary circuits could have failed.

It would be easier to just replace the camera than to fix it, but the you never know how long the replacement will last, as many of those style of cameras did not get the best of handling by their owners. But if you insist, one place to find repair info on these is You Tube www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnptPHHaJ_I&vl=en

Good luck!

PF

High current drain sounds like severe electronic component failure(s) or a short. You might be able to pop it open, and replace some/all circuit boards - but - the problem, as others have mentioned, is in finding working donor parts that you're sure are in working order before you put them in. There's also no guarentee that there's not some mechanical part shorting circuits either. Things physically break and wreak havic when they 'float' around.

Thank you Guys, it's sad...i do like this small P&S Yashica (Kyocera) very much...and it's another thing, whileas i do besides this 35mm Camera, don't like automatic Film Transport, etc. Auto anything Gear, but fully mechanical one, for instance, the FX-3, besides the Lightmeter, it's a pure mech. SLR...and it simply just works, even it doesn't give me joy or chills like my Contax Gear, whileas shooting.

Yes PF, that is true. I would get a 3rd (!) 28-70 T-Zoom soon, next week, i'd guess..and see which issues that sample would have...Perhaps, i might open one of them (that one, which is optically not into 95-98% condition, but around ~90%) and would try perhaps to replace all inside capacitors, and especially Elkos. The thing is, if it works, it can give decent IQ, depending onto the Film, Subject and Light Conditions, albeit only on sunny Days, because the Lens is really slow from Speed. It's more like a variable Focal Length camera, whileas it is being marked as "Zoom", there is no stepless zooming with this Lens.It stops at 28, 40, 50, 60 & 70mm focal Length only.

I also have a T-Zoom which now displays the battery empty sign and won't do anything. I could open it and remove the front and back cover and found a wire which somehow seems to have come loose. Now I'm not sure where to solder it to, it must be either the board on the very top or the one below that where the capacitor is attached to. Does anyone have (may be a defective) T-Zoom and could open it and post a picture of the wires taken from the top and front of the  camera? That would be really great.