G1 focusing issue

[dagata]

I've had a G1 now for a few years, and lately I've noticed that when I mount a lens, sometimes the autofocus doesn't "catch," and the lens focuses but extremely slowly. If I remove the lens and put it on/off a few times, this usually does the trick, but I'm worried that this may be the beginning of a serious problem or that a contact is dirty or something with the autofocus system--and that now that Contax has folded I won't be able to find service for it. Anybody had this problem with any G bodies? Help appreciated, thanks.

[Socke]

Haven't had that and my G1 is very worn. I think it's dirty contacts.

[dagata]

Thanks, Socke... Any idea how to clean them?

[Socke]

The standard answer is a pencil eraser, the rough red ones.

I used those on gold plated contacts from memory chips.

And on a second thought, check the pins in the camera if they have enough tension and if the lens contacts are bent. The rightmost, looking on the backelement, contact on my 45 got bent one time and shorted with the contact to the left, but then the lens didn't focus at all.

[treehouse]

Slow focussing can also be symptomatic of low battery levels in the camera. Regardless of what the battery power display says, if your batteries have been in the camera for a year or more (and/or you've used the camera a great deal), the batteries may be low enough to cause slow drive of the lens focussing mechanism. From experience ....