Contax RTS and OM4 giving wrong meter readings

LeicaFoReVer

LeicaFoReVer

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Especially Contax is over exposing my shots quite a lot. I got the same reading as my leica m6 if I keep leica at iso 100 and I change RTS to iso 400. The same OM4.

Is that a battery issue as I used alkaline 1.5v? I think they had silver batteries with higher voltage originally??
 
Your Contax calls for a 6V silver oxide or alkaline battery (Eveready 544, Ucar 544, Mallory PX28, Alkaline Eveready 537 or equivalent). You should be able to put four of the 1.5V button batteries in it, but if not, get the long 6V batteries.
 
The original RTS used a 6V PX28 or 2x LR44 batteries.

As Steve_M points out you can use 4 1.5V batteries theoretically, but it would be hard to load them in and out of the battery compartment.

Marty
 
opps sorry my bad guys, I put the 6V but it is alkaline. As I read on internet, some says alkaline instead of silver would cause wrong readings. Can that be the reason?

Or the lightmeters need repair?
 
Alkaline batteries have different discharge characteristics, but if the batteries are fresh and the cameras are malfunctioning it is most likely that there is something wrong with the cameras. But try to find the correct battery before you take them for repair-it seems suspicious that two cameras would misbehave simultaneously.

Marty
 
Hi,

PX28 is an old mercury battery designation. You can read all about them here:

http://www.smallbattery.company.org.uk/sbc_4sr44.htm?4sr44,DURACELL,PX28

but I don't think he can post them overseas. This is also interesting:-

https://schneidan.com/2015/05/19/the-trouble-with-mercury-batteries-and-what-to-do/

The battery characteristics vary between mercury, alkaline, lithium and silver oxide. In a nutshell they all fade and die in a different way and some cameras will compensate for it and some won't and then you have problems. (And some will leak and attack the leads inside the camera and that will cause a HR and affect the metering.)

I'm sorry I can't help more than that.

Regards, David
 
Last edited:
Freakscene said:
The original RTS used a 6V PX28 or 2x LR44 batteries.

As Steve_M points out you can use 4 1.5V batteries theoretically, but it would be hard to load them in and out of the battery compartment.

Marty
Click to expand...

You could use a piece of cellotape/scotch tape to hold them together.
 
I can tell you for sure that the Olympus needs a silver oxide batteries - SR44. Don't bother with anything else. I had the same problems with an OM-2n and alkaline batteries.
 
p.giannakis said:
I can tell you for sure that the Olympus needs a silver oxide batteries - SR44. Don't bother with anything else. I had the same problems with an OM-2n and alkaline batteries.
Click to expand...

I see everywhere that the sellers advertise as silver oxide but they are actually alkaline. Where can I find true silver oxide ones?
 
Huss said:
You could use a piece of cellotape/scotch tape to hold them together.
Click to expand...

I actually tried to do it after his post and I was able to insert 4 x lr44 buttons carefully without a tape but you need a thick aluminum foil at the top as the buttons weren't touching to the top plate. Then it worked but the readings didn't change.
 
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