LEICAMETER MR-4; repair or junk it??

There is a very nice voltage dropping adapter sold on ebay by "Pradethai". It is gold plated for maximum conductivity (real gold, not paint), and contoured to match the profile of the old mercury cells.
 
I'm a klutz but I used to pick these up years ago and fix them in a hour or less. Generally the problems are really simple and they are really easy to fix. Rarely nothing is wrong with the meter itself, the movement gets hung up or a wire (rather large wire) needs re-soldering. I have a box full of them that I never got around to fixing and someday when I have time I will.

Most if not all, M4 metes have a rosette bridge which compensates for the S76 battery. They may need adjustment either by the screw on the bottom (usually) or sometimes internally but it's a very simple adjustment and the bridge self compensates for the voltage difference, even as it declines. Since the meter couples to the the speed dial it is very easy to pick a speed, push the release button, read the aperture, set the aperture on the lens, bring the camera to eye level and shoot. Faster done than then it takes to type. Can't do that with the VC meter. I have the VC meter and its ok on the LTM cameras but I was never that impressed. Falls out of the hot shoe, dials turn too easy, ISO setting changes too easy. Have to adjust speed and aperture. Easier to use a hand held.
 
Hi,

Why not ask them? They are a good firm to deal with...

Regards, David

PS Or buy a dozen and start selling them yourself. ;-)
 
They will work on the FTN if you want to buy two of them. However, the FTN can easily be adjusted internally to accept the standard 3V from two 1.5V silver oxide cells, or a 1/3 N cell with adapter sleeve.
 
The problem with that is I don't know what to tweak or how much. I have three FTN Photomics and only one hasn't been tweaked. The other two were sent out to use the standard 1.5v batteries and adjusted accordingly. The one that hasn't been sent out I just set the ASA dial to 250 rather than 400 and it's very close to my other meters.
 
ColColt said:
If it were me I'd talk with George at Quality Light Meter Co. Excellent service on most any old meter like this. I just got a Luna Pro SBC back that's like new from George. Give him a call(no website). He's in LA.

323-467-2265
Click to expand...

Three years ago I bought a non working MR meter at a garage sale. Sent it to George at Quality Light in LA. A few days later he called and explained the malfunction and quoted a repair price of $104US. I had the meter back within the week and it is flawless.
 
The only meters that are unfixable are the ones where the old mercury battery has leaked into the circuitry, and corroded everything. This happened on a few non-working meters that I bought for parts.
 
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