Battery adapter for Leica MR

[gerbilthemistake]

Hello i just recently purchased a leica m2 and got it CLAed by Youxin. Now that the M2 is ready to be used, i would like to get the Leica MR meter that came with it to work as well. I read it only uses mercury batteries so i am looking for some help to locate some kind of adapter so it can use alkalines. I was told by ebay seller to email battery.adapter@orange.nl to see if he has any adapter for it available. No reply yet and it has been almost a week. Does anyone know of a person/place that sells reliable adapters for this particular meter?

Thanks,
Tim

 

[Artorius]

C.r.i.s.

C.r.i.s.

I bought the CRIS Adapter here;
http://www.criscam.com/products_services/mercury_battery_adapters/

Works good, and the batteries are cheap to replace. An alternative method, would be to have the meter recalibrated to use newer batteries.

 

[maddoc]

I recently received a MR-4 to go with my M4-P. The meter, I have received was re-adjusted to be used with a 1.5 V Varta PX625 cell. Only problem is that these Varta cells have a different discharge characteristic than mercury cells. Since the old MR meter doesn't have a voltage regulator, your meter will go slightly get off when the battery gets more and more exhausted. A very good sum-up can be found here.

 

[gerbilthemistake]

I bought the CRIS Adapter here;
http://www.criscam.com/products_services/mercury_battery_adapters/

Works good, and the batteries are cheap to replace. An alternative method, would be to have the meter recalibrated to use newer batteries.

I looked on their website and emailed them and they only seem to have a battery adapter for a MR-4 meter. They said they weren't sure if itd work for a MR meter.

 

[Beemermark]

The MR meter is voltage adjusted. In 25 years I have never used a mercury battery, never knew it took a mercury battery and never had exposure problems with Kodachrome 25 & 64. Just buy a silver oxide battery for $3 or $4 bucks and try it with slide film. If I'm wrong your out less than $10.

 

[Artorius]

I looked on their website and emailed them and they only seem to have a battery adapter for a MR-4 meter. They said they weren't sure if itd work for a MR meter.

That's what the adapter is, a battery holder with a diode voltage drop, that replaces the Mercury battery. Works very well in the MR4. Don't know why they didn't know if it worked or not. I wrote a user review a while back, and forwarded the review to them, as a matter of fact, you could Google C.R.I.S. adapter and find a bunch of reviews.
In any case, it works great.

 

[raid]

Does it state "MR4" on the MR4 meter, or it is still "MR"?

 

[Fuchs]

Does it state "MR4" on the MR4 meter, or it is still "MR"?

Raid,
both the original MR and the later MR4 say LeicaMeter MR on it. The MR has the push button on the side and was originally issued for the M3, M2 and M1. When they changed the rewind knob to the slanted lever in the M4, the side button made it difficult to rewind film. So they changed to a new kind of Leicameter with a lever on the top side. As it came out together with the M4, it was nicknamed MR4 and the name sticked.
There are some minor variations, but they are both the same internally, though.

BTW, if anyone has a black MR4 for sale, I am looking for one to buy (TIA).

 

[raid]

Thank you, Ed.
I then have a [chrome] MR4.
I seem to have a dead battery stuck inside some adapter.

 

[payasam]

Please see other thread on same meter.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Glad to hear the explanation about MR and MR4.

I'm the proud papa of two of these. One in silver, one in black... 🙂

 

[Joop van Heijgen]

The MR meter is voltage adjusted. In 25 years I have never used a mercury battery, never knew it took a mercury battery and never had exposure problems with Kodachrome 25 & 64. Just buy a silver oxide battery for $3 or $4 bucks and try it with slide film. If I'm wrong your out less than $10.

In helping my friend secure an MR-4 for his non-metered M's, I've gotten hold of several of them in working/accurate condition and discovered something interesting:

Checking the readings at the low, mid and high ends of the brightness range, I have found no variation between the following (voltages tested on a meter):

a new (never used) PX625 1.3V Mercury battery

a new PX625-A 1.5V Alkaline battery

a new MS76 1.55v Silver-Oxide battery in a CRIS MR9 1.3v adaptor

a new MS76 1.55v Silver-Oxide battery in a washer-spacer (left over from a Wein cell).

I did not have the same results when I tried this with a Leicaflex SL, M5 or CL, all of which required compensation with a 1.5v and then would still not read accurately at both ends of the brightness range.

Could it be that the MR-4, made by Metrawatt, has a built-in voltage regulator that nobody knows about? I'm reluctant to open these meters since I don't own them, and wouldn't know what I was looking at if I did. Just curious if anybody else has checked an MR4 with different battery types and found the same thing. I don't mean the readings are close, they're *identical*. BTW for using the MR9 adaptor I would recommend a 386 vs an MS76 because the latter is thicker and pushes the battery door open a little--and those battery doors don't look like they're too strong.

http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-...s/2/50437.html

 

[Vincenzo Maielli]

The Kanto adapter automatically reduce the 1,55 voltage of the 386 silver oxide battery into the 1,35 voltage of the ancient PX 625 or PX 13 mercury oxide batteries. I own several Kanto adapters, that are very accurate.
Unfortunately, the Kanto adapter don't fit in the Leicameter MR. In this case, in my opinion, the best solution is the use of an SPX625 1,55 silver oxide battery. This special battery, simply available in USA or UK, is perfect to replace the old 1,35 mercury oxide batteries, due to same dimensions and the same constant curve of discharge showed by silver oxide and mercury oxide elements. Is enough to compensate the ASA/ISO dial on the Leicameter MR.
As alternative, you can try the Wein Cell MRB625 zinc air battery, that show 1,35 voltage.
Ciao.
Vincenzo