Just got electrocuted by a camera...explanations?

[Silver]

Okay, so my gf's old film camera wouldn't let her film out (wouldn't rewind it) and the camera had seen better days, so we decided to dismantle it to see if the film was totally unwound or if we could salvage some of it.

At first, I stupidly forgot to take out the battery, and when I got the case off I accidently touched the contact and shocked myself, so then I took out the battery.

Then, fiddling around with it, trying to get the film out, I got shocked twice. I wondered why, so I cut all the little cables and stuff and was trying to take off one of the silicon boards and got FRIED.

The camera literally flew out of my hands, the screwdriver landed about 3 feet away, and the tweezer thingy landed about 5 feet away.

How the hell can this happen when there's NO power source? There's no backup battery or anything like that, so what's the deal?

Does anyone here know anything about stuff like that?

 

[Loop]

It's the capacitator, that still has electrical energy in it, even if you take off the battery.
As a general tip when opening electronic devices, always take off the power source, then try draining the power by turning it on.

 

[Silver]

I see...interesting. Thanks Loop!

 

[GregInOz]

That's a good tip for any wannabe mr fix it. I learned the hard way too, taking the case off a guitar amplifier (plugged in, but turned off - cos I thought I wasn't messing with electrical bits) I was shocked sufficiently to activate the house's circuit breaker and make me jump in the air and say wooo! involuntarily and quite loud and see blurry for a minute or so.

Electricity requires care. Lots. If you aren't sure, don't.

 

[Bravo]

I have an electric watch that has no battery. The movement of the watch charges a capacitor and the capacitor powers the watch. Works pretty well. You can take the watch off and leave it still for over 24 hours and it runs fine...