Minlota Vectis 2000- I want to open the film door without battery power. Is there an emergency release?

The clue is in your descrition; Old.
If the mechanism has jammed, due to age or lack of use that causes tarnisg=hing on the contacts, the motor/mechanism will not load.
I would get it serviced at an aurgorised Minolta repair shop.
Contact Minolta for a list of authorised repairers.

Sorry to hear about this issue. If you have a change bag, I would put a few jewelers screwdrivers in it then put the camera in it. With the bag closed up I would attempt to forcibly open the back. With the camera in the bag there is not any chance to expose the film. After the film is removed wind it back into the cartridge. Now send it off for developing.

Good luck,
Cordially,

Make sure the battery in the keypad is good. You cannot reset the keypad without access to the opener. You will have to find a way into the garage.

A door technician uses a special tool to pull the emergency release after drilling a small hole in the door. The door can then be lifted without damaging anything. A keyed manual release assembly is then installed in the hole to be used if there are problems in the future like a power outage or malfunction like you have now.

Manual :

MINOLTA VECTIS 40 Manual Page 20

Turn the camera on, then press the film chamber release on the bottom of the camera. See the illustrated instructions in the "Loading Film" section of the manual.

Essentially, you probably don't as APS film is no longer made and is getting difficult to get processed if you do get some old stock.

But like on all APS cameras, there's a lock on one end of the camera and usually you turn it to open a small door on the bottom of the camera. The APS film cassette gets pushed into the compartment and when you close the door and the camera *should* wind the film ready for shooting and lock the door so that you cannot open it until the film is rewound. The cameras are entirely battery dependent and many used CR2 lithium batteries which are disproportionately expensive and hard to find except from online suppliers.

Unfortunately APS was a badly engineered system from the start, so the cameras didn't tend to last long before suffering major faults. You may wish to bear that fact in mind as those faults won't show until you load a film and any film you do find will likely cost more than you can buy another APS camera for. They're widely available for free or for about a £ or two from almost any charity shop (not from the one I work in though as I always put them straight into the recycling bin as they're a liability).

The user manual is available here http://ca.konicaminolta.com/support/manuals/film-cameras/asp_cameras/vectis_2000/vectis_2000_e.pdf and that explains on page 17.18 and 19 epxlains how to load the film

Which compartments?

The lid on the battery compartment next to the tripod mount flips down.

To open the film compartment, turn the camera upside down, then turn the film chamber release clockwise.

You can download a manual from http://www.butkus.org/chinon/minolta.htm

You need the camera powered up and all the film used to activate the release mechanism for the lock to release the film door, the Elph film door will not open until all the pictures have been taken. It uses A CR2 Lithium battery

Hi - You can download the manual from the link underlined in blue below:

Vectis 2000

See page 19:



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