I purchased a large collection of vintage photogear this week and of course, they’ll always be some victims of battery leakage mixed in. We’ve all been victimized by this process – we leave a battery (mostly alkaline) in a seldom-used camera, remote or toy only to discover that it doesn’t work when we go to use it. Even fresh batteries installed in a device can leak and corrode the battery compartment in as little as weeks! That’s right, I said weeks.

Caution!

This battery compartment was so bad that I had to dig out the AA batteries with a screwdriver!

The corrosive acid from the battery destroyed the battery compartment cover and latch.

The same camera with the corrosion removed and the compartment door repaired. The camera is fully operational again. It’s still a bit ugly but at least it works.

Electronic flash units are notorious for finding battery corrosion…