Bought an RD-1 + Extended battery mod

[azkay]

After a week of research, a week of finding an RD-1, a week of waiting for the ebay auction to end to win it and buying a Jupiter 12 35mm, I finally have my first rangefinder.

Which after all that, I forgot to order an M39 > M adapter.
I ended up dremeling away for 30 minutes or so into the body cap for a makeshift adapter until the hong kong one gets here, though the focus isn't perfect on it because it's still a few mm away from where it should be sitting, if I grind any more off the cap will probably just break.

It came with a bunch of spare batteries and after looking at battery life threads (and noticing a lack of camera mods), I decided at looking it making my own extended battery using 18650 batteries I got out of a laptop. First step was figuring out how to get to the battery compartment without putting holes in the body. How hard could it be, right?

The "hole" is completely reversible, just don't lose the button/screws. When I get more time/less lazy to finish it, rather than just "good enough to show what I mean", I would make a case that screws into the tripod mount, maybe 4 batteries in parallel which hook up to the empty battery in the body through the hole.

Magic, lots of battery life.
Also, hi.

 

[paradoxbox]

Welcome to RD-1 ownership!

Cool mod! But be careful with batteries - the RD-1 is sensitive to voltage changes/instability. The RD-1 has been known to freeze up - the shutter will stop firing - if the battery voltage gets unstable, and that's even with EPSON brand batteries.

Show us some shots once you've got some taken!

 

[steveclem]

Nice work, very inventive. Welcome to an exclusive club, forget the pixel frenzy, quality over quantity these beauties have the colour of magic about them,long live the CCD.

 

[Hamfish]

Congrats on your purchase! and is that a Concession Brisbane Go Card i see sticking out of your wallet?

 

[Rick Waldroup]

I, too, am a fairly recent convert to the RD-1, having purchased mine just a few months ago. It is a truly great camera.

Interesting conversion you have done. The only real problem I have with the Epson is, of course, the battery issue. I now carry four batteries with me of which only one is an Epson battery.

Good luck with your new camera. It is a joy to use.

 

[azkay]

Welcome to RD-1 ownership!

Cool mod! But be careful with batteries - the RD-1 is sensitive to voltage changes/instability. The RD-1 has been known to freeze up - the shutter will stop firing - if the battery voltage gets unstable, and that's even with EPSON brand batteries.

Show us some shots once you've got some taken!

Yeah I was looking at the different voltage levels between empty/charged and comparing them with the batteries I'm using, both the same. Should be good. If not, science?

Congrats on your purchase! and is that a Concession Brisbane Go Card i see sticking out of your wallet?

Yes, yes it is. Where abouts are you in Brisbane?

Thanks for the welcomes, I've taken my first pictures today with it but most of them turned out pretty terriblurry, probably more to do with my makeshift lens-cap adapter for the M39 more than anything else though, haha.
I'll get some pictures up if I get any in focus or wait until the proper adapter comes in the mail.

 

[Alex-D]

Hi everyone. Does anybody knows sizes of inner battery element? Maybe it possible to replace it with standard 18500 Li-ion battery (18x50 mm) with 2000 mAh capacity?

 

[Lee Rust]

The original NP80 battery case does seem like it would fit a lithium cell that's 18 x 50mm.

At some point we all may have to improvise replacement batteries for the R-D1, but in the meantime new ones are still available here in the US. I recently bought several from zbattery.com that are sold under the name "UltraLast", rated at 3.7v/1700mAh. The model number is CAM-80/ULNP80. Even though they weren't actually in stock, zbattery.com ordered them for me directly from the US importer, Dantona Industries.

I carry three extra batteries with the camera and so far that's been enough to get through a full day of shooting. To avoid overnight recharging delays, I have two Synergy SDM-144 Travel Chargers, plus some spare batteries always ready to go.