Ever Ready #544 equivalent?

[rbiemer]

I just won a Pentax ES camera and will be needing batteries for it.
The manual says to use an Ever Ready #544 6 volt silver battery, is the S28PX the current equivalent for this cell? According to Google, it seems to be but I'd appreciate hearing from an actual person about this.
Thanks,
Rob

 

[Gumby]

I'm not an "actual person"... just a ball of green clay, but here is the equivenenacy I know of for the 544 battery:

S27PX 6 Volt Silver Oxide Photo Battery
Energizer: A54464
Eveready: A544
Gold Peak: GP476, GP476A
Guardian: 4LR44
Hitachi: 4SR44
I.E.C.: 4LR44
JIS: 4AG13
Kodak: K28A
Mallory: 7H34
Maxell: 4G13
NEDA: 1406LC
Panasonic: 4LR44, L1325
Petsafe: RFA-18
RadioShack: 23-544
UCAR: 476A
Varta: V28PX, V34PX, V4034PX
Vinnic: 4LR44

 

[Seele]

The ES has its battery chamber at the front with a somewhat long coil spring on the inside of the screw-down cap. You can thus use four easily available alkaline or silver button cells, wrapped into a cylinder with a slip of paper, that works very well.

In fact that 6V battery is four of those button cells stacked together, housed in a cylinder with a bit of a spacer to make up the extra couple of millimetres of length. I use this sort of batteries a lot, and of course have plenty of flat ones. I found that, with a bit of care, the Duracell ones can be taken apart, with the four cells replaced and then reassembled. But if you have a flat one, take it apart all the same, and keep the stiff paper tube for holding the four individual cells, that's good enough for use with the ES.

A Japanese enthusiasts described two methods of such battery hacking for his ES:

http://www.geocities.jp/pxm0/pentax_es.htm

http://www.geocities.jp/pxm0/4lr44.htm

 

[rbiemer]

Gumby, I didn't say "human", I said "person" so lump of green clay or not, I think you qualify--except, perhaps, for those appearances on Saturday Night Live...
Seele, thanks for the info and the links. I'm currently using 1/3N batteries in my Bessa cameras and those are equivalent to two sr44s, so it seems I could use two 1/3Ns in a pinch...I have ordered a couple of batteries for it but if they don't get here before the camera, I'll try the double 1/3N and see if the meter responds in a way that makes sense and the shutter fires.
Thanks, Gents!
Rob

 

[Seele]

The 1/3N is a lithium battery the size of two of those button cells stacked together. Over the years many users reported poor performance where they go flat after only a few rolls. This I think depends on the actual design of the camera, and personally I would not recommend its use as alkaline and silver cells are available at advantageous prices and pretty much guaranteed reliability; I do not even want to use them in my Bessas, even though they are the R and R2 with mechanical shutters where lack of electrical power would not render them unusable.

 

[rbiemer]

Hmmm, I used sr44 batteries in my R and when I bought my R2a from Photovillage, I asked Rich to include some batteries in the package and he sent a couple of the 1/3n and the suggestion that they were less fiddly to install and "just fine". I've been happy with that battery so far; I got the camera last October and am still on the first one.
I do like that the sr44s are generally easy to find--even here in the Adirondacks and not too pricey.When I do end up replacing the 1/3n it will probably be with sr44s as they are much easier to find locally.
I generally don't keep spares for the R but for the R2a, I do keep a couple of extras on hand: it's about 30 miles to the nearest place I can be sure of finding them and with out batteries, the R2a is a fancy brick!
I guess I need to decide which is more important to me; storage longevity or in camera longevity.
Regards,
Rob

 

[Seele]

rbiemer,

If you get your hands on a flat 544 and take the paper tube out, then you just need to get the button cells, simple!