Konica Auto S3, Vivitar 35ES, Revue 400SE without battery

D

dukovac

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Hello everybody,



If you use Konica Auto S3 without battery, you can shoot at all shutter speeds, but allways at the largest aperture of 1:1,8, which makes it a possible alternative for low-weight-high-aperture-low-light-shooter if you have a separate lightmeter. I wonder it the same is possible with the Vivitar/Revue twins.

Does anybody know what the later two do without battery?

And an another question about the Konica (take a deep breath, I'm going to do some math:) does it allow to shoot outside the lightmeter range? If it does, I could put a 3200 film inside, set the camera to the maximum ASA of 800, then meter and then turn the shutter for two stops and get the right exposure, of course only if the light would be so low that the automatic aperture would be set to 1:1,8 before adjusting the shutter.
Looks a bit complicated I know:), but I think it should work:)

d.
 
The very similar Minolta 7sII is fully functional as a manual exposure camera without a battery.
All shutter speeds and apertures are available.
The battery is required for the meter/AE only.

Chris
 
I have the Revue 400 SE25. It also will fire at any shutter speed without a battery but the aperture is controlled by the battery. I have given some thought to the guide number flash settings though. If you could figure out what the aperture is at a given distance at a given "LZ" flash number. You could manually impose an aperture other than wide open. The problem is that if you change the distance, the aperture will change too. Possible but stupid. I think I even made a spreadsheet once to figure this out. I processed a roll from my Revue tonight and it had pictures on it. It would be a great camera if the meter wasn't 3.5 stops off. 800=50 on mine. If there was manual control, I would like the camera a lot more because it is small and has a really sweet shutter. Poor viewfinder compared to others and no parallax correction.
 
You can lock the camera at 1.8 by pulling the battery, and then do all of your shutter speed metering calcs for that aperture which would allow you to shoot outside of the metering range, but alas, only at 1.8.

Mercifully the hexanon lens is quite good at 1.8.

dukovac said:
Hello everybody,



If you use Konica Auto S3 without battery, you can shoot at all shutter speeds, but allways at the largest aperture of 1:1,8, which makes it a possible alternative for low-weight-high-aperture-low-light-shooter if you have a separate lightmeter. I wonder it the same is possible with the Vivitar/Revue twins.

Does anybody know what the later two do without battery?

And an another question about the Konica (take a deep breath, I'm going to do some math:) does it allow to shoot outside the lightmeter range? If it does, I could put a 3200 film inside, set the camera to the maximum ASA of 800, then meter and then turn the shutter for two stops and get the right exposure, of course only if the light would be so low that the automatic aperture would be set to 1:1,8 before adjusting the shutter.
Looks a bit complicated I know:), but I think it should work:)

d.
Click to expand...
 
My Vivitar 35 ES is shutter-priority, so is cross-coupled. No aperture ring, so although I can change the speed without a battery, I can't be sure which aperture I get, although it DOES change when I change the speed. The battery only fuels the meter, as far as I can tell.

Regards!
Don
 
minolta hi matic 7s II is the only way to shoot without a battery i have every model of the 60s - 80s compacts from yashika to olympus and trust me the 7S ll is the best
 
Gerbil62 said:
minolta hi matic 7s II is the only way to shoot without a battery i have every model of the 60s - 80s compacts from yashika to olympus and trust me the 7S ll is the best
Click to expand...

what makes you think the 7s II is better than the Oly RD?

i just bought a nice Revue 400SE (there is a vivitar version of the camera too)and I really like it except for the viewfinder which is a little to small (low magnification). with the display of the aperture in the viewfinder i don't consider the shutter priority operation a probem. it will surely be my main low light shooter for a while (after I change the light seals). since i discovered that the lightmeter meters consistantly with the silver 1,55V battery (allways underexposing 2 stops), i think i will be able to use it with a 1600 film very well.
unfortunately, the viewfinder looks very much the same as on Konica c35. the Oly RD has a better magnification (i think 0,6x against 0,45x), but i don't know about the 7s II.
 
The Olympus 35RC does not need a battery and shoots at all speeds/apertures. full manual control of all. Battery is only needed for use of the shutter priority meter.
 
400se little trick

400se little trick

To change aperture you meter at a lighter or darker spot and press the shutter half way down, this will let you lock the aperture. Comes in handy when a shot has a lot of backlighting and you want details in it.

I have done this many times and it works fairly easy after some practice.

Ps. if you want the aperture set to 1.8 do the same as above only put you hand in front of the lens so it will be dark enough to give F1.8
 
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