camera battery

[back alley]

for all those who have older cameras that use mercury buttons, what have you done to continue using your cameras?

switched to silver oxide/alkaline and adjusted meter/asa or had the camera meter recalibrated or...?

joe

 

[Doug]

Hi Joe-- I've been pretty fortunate on the battery issue. My Pentax Spotmatic has sufficient circuitry to handle the voltage change to silver cells without adjustment, and the same seems to be true for my Gossen SuperPilot meter.

But there's that problem with the Olympus Pen FT and Olympus 35RC, whereas the 35RC's meter is dead now anyway, and the Pen FT's meter always was awkward to use.

None of my other stuff uses mercury cells, so I have been lucky.

 

[Flinor]

Joe, I think I can honestly answer "All of the above" but the solutions that have worked best for me are px625.com and criscam.com.

Px625.com is a guy who has a source for mercury batteries (China??) He isn't cheap, but he's probably the only source at this time. I've got some of his batteries and they seem to work fine.

Criscam.com is a manufacturer of tools and test gear that offers the MR-9 adaptor for $29.95. This takes an ordinary S76 silver oxide and steps the voltage down to 1.35v. It's the same diameter and just a hair thicker than a standard PX625 and the 2 that I have work in everything that I've tried them in. Of course, sometimes I run a $20 camera with a $30 adaptor but it keeps the oldies in the game.

Gerry

 

[back alley]

thanks guys.

 

[back alley]

well, i picked up one of those wein batteries today.
i'm about to spend some time cleaning my 35 rc and then maybe take a few shots this weekend.

joe