E-300 shutter issue

[omihakkei]

Bought my E-300 last spring, have shot 5,000+ images with NO issues. Have three batteries, which are rotated regularly.

Today (Thanksgiving Day in the States) I took the camera out of its bag, went to take a photo of dinner preparations, and found upon depressing the shutter button (1.) a disconcerting lag of a few seconds I'd never experienced, followed by (2.) a sequence of perhaps 10 rapid-fire exposures (yet no images were recorded on the card).

Changed the battery, yet the SLR repeated the same behavior. So, I suspect I'll be boxing the camera up and sending it to the Olympus repair center in California (unless one of you savvy folks have a clever solution).

Thanks!

Omi

[Norm in Fujino]

That's an odd one. I've never heard of a camera rapid-firing ten exposures without anything being recorded, but I'd have several questions: What resolution was the camera set on? was the lens cap on? And so forth. But overall it sounds like something stuck in a circuit somewhere. Definitely a repair/replacement scenario. (Also please see my private message).

[sdj0122]

This has happened, two or three times, to me before. It's generally when I have been using the camera for a long time, and have taken alot of continuous frames. It will just freeze up for a second and then click off 10 or so frames without recording a thing. I always freak and turn it off, and then when I turn it back on, the shutter makes a noise like it just reopened. I have no clue why this happens, but I am not overly concerned about it because of how rarely it happens.

[omihakkei]

I'm dead in the water, as this is all the camera will do right now. Press the shutter, the unit pauses, then shoots off ten rapid frames, recording zero. Regardless of settings, batteries installed, resolution selected. Frustrating. Had to shift back to our old C-740 to capture Thanksgiving dinner images...

Thanks for the responses, though!

Omi

[mtclimber]

It is just a thought, but I had something similiar a year or so ago and it was a battery contact issue. Long storage in humid conditions can raise havoc with electrical contacts.

MT