Almost all the cameras are now dependent on batteries.

Battery corrosion(white or green) can be wiped off by hot water on cue tips. sometimes you may have to scape off with sharp edged tools like screw drivers. Use a pencil to coat the contact area with lead, by writing on them surfaces.

Air conditioned homes often dry up the electrolytic capacitor for camera drive motor surges. You can cure the capacitor in your home without air conditioning by putting good batteries in and leave it on for a few days.

Lens and mirrors(slr) can be cleaned without scratches using dey cotton T-shirt washed in detergent, but not rinsed out.

Scotch tape residues are cleaned with an application of Vaseline, which dissolves the rubber cement. Simply wipe it clean afterwards.

Stay away from from cameras with missing parts.

Broken camera parts maybe fixed with old credit card(or tin can sheet metal), cut with a pair of scissors(metal cutting kitchen type) to fit(inlaid), and glue by crazy glue?

Stay away from electronic failures, or digital camaras with lens retraction problems. Some cameras may need higher current capacity batteries? Always buy cheap batteries on bulk at ebay?

Have fun, money well spent and better than watching a movie?

If you believe all batteries can be recharged; you are here to understand the theory and practice?

You have to believe first that recharging batteries is understanding impedance of a battery. Chemicals change and have a memory(stable condition). Once the internal impedance gets higher, electricity can not be forced into the battery and recharging becomes impossible. But some knowledge of discharging circuit will make some batteries work again. So, the latest smart chargers have fancy ICs to discharge a little then recharge the batteries. However, none have impedance sensing with dynamic discharging circuits yet.

To recharge a battery, one often start with trickle chargers(10ma). If the voltage of the battery increased, do some more charging until battery gets to the theoretical voltage. Then you try higher voltage to accelerate(over two times the voltage and up to 140 ma per battery) charging. Then you can clamp the battery voltage with LED in parallel, so the battery voltage does not go beyond the theoretical voltage.

Then, you are ready to try all the smart chargers. It is amazing that some batteries have an optimum charging current. so, some charger works, other failed with blinking LEDs. This is more evident with batteries that have added metallic particles, such as Lithium and NiMh higher current batteries. Even if they will not charge on some chargers, they may work on other chargers.

With alkaline batteries, leakage is a serious problem, recharging has to be limited to one hour on commercial chargers then cool down, then charge again. Discharging the battery in use, actually will prevent discharge not in use.

So, you can charge any commercial batteries even when overheated they may exploded. You have to trickle charge for only a short duration, before it heats up or leakage occurs. You have to be warned that do not try too high a current for labeled non-rechargeable batteries. You have to know engineering and the charger you use(voltage and current limitation).

Warning:
If you are not an engineer, read the label of the battery. Explosion has to be avoided. Overheating cause explosion.

Many years ago, people learned about freezer and Kodak film. You can store them indefinitely, kept fresh until use. After all file is just bones dissolved in water(Jello). Dry Jello powder never spoil. Film is developed by using sodium hydroxide where the light damaged the atoms(carbon and hydrogen atomic bonding). Development is stopped by vinegar. There is no myth after all, only common chemicals. Color film is just three layers sensitive to color spectrum.

Today, everyone has the pleasures of digital cameras up to 12 megapixels of resolution. Is it better than ordinary film? Only when you enlarge the picture. Film has infinite resolution compared to 12 megapixels.

On the other hand, point and shoot film cameras are only as good as objects within 15 feet of distance. Sharp 30-70 mm lenses are only wonderful if your objects are within 7 feet. 200 mm lense can have impressive pictures up to 15 feet away. So, we still treasure single lense reflexes, where lenses can be 400mm or 1,000 mm long. Mirror lense can go to 8 feet away. Very impressive indeed. Fish eye and short focal length lenses do fashion pictures with distortion. What a wonderful hobby, u=if you are creative indeed. A picture to last a life time.

So, today, the myth of film is that you don't need to freeze them. You just seal them in a plastic bag under reasonable vacuum or not much air to oxidize the film. 100 ASA for finer grains and better sharpness. 400 ASA for low lights but grainier artistic shots.

Have fun doing picture taking with affordable cameras of yesteryear's. Nikon or Canon slr for $50 on ebay.

If you collect cameras, you have to study electronic flash and many accessories for electronic flash? lenses attachment, filters, bounced flash, etc.

In the old days, the flash tubes did not last long. Today technology give us many more flashes per tube. It is only that we no longer pump too much power thru the tube. Films are more sensitive, or digital sensors are ultra sensitive. Most digital camera had to restrict flash tube output, otherwise the picture has no contrast.

Most electronic flash on ebay suffered battery corrosion. Fortunately, water dissolves copper corrosion. Then exposed copper can use pencil lead coating, and restore electronic flash functions. Transistor circuits are now seldom faulty. Flash tube when old will become difficult to fire. Just change the tube to repair the unit.

On the other hand, capacitor will dry up in air conditioned homes. Fixing cameras often takes patience to turn on the electrical circuit for couple of days and capacitor will be cured. Good as new often just by usage.

Have you played with electronic flash? Its fun to play with contrast in your picture taking. Halo in your hair, and fill in to get rid of shadows.