Re: [Leica] Battery for M6 (long, and maybe useless!)

[MicroGrid@aol.com]

Tom Schofield wrote;

Hi Bruce,

snip
Can you comment upon using two 1.5 v silver batteries instead of
a 1/3N Li battery?  My M6 TTL has gone through several sets in 6 mos, and
the silver batteries seem to last longer.  Are silver as good in low
temperatures?

Tom,
Sorry I did'nt get back to you sooner. As I said I havn't made up my mind ,so 
I( have no experience with an M6. I defer to the much greater knowedge of Tom 
A on that. Generally Lithium batteries last longer than Ag in low drain 
applications. We have no products in Ag button cells, so I don't have any 
technical expereience, just in talking with the electrochemists. I would 
think that if your M6 has the problem Tom A described, a Li battery would 
still last longer than the silver cells.

Generally the greatest factor in battery life, aside from the 
electrochemistry is the prepurchase time & storage condition. Get batteries 
from dealers who sell lots of them,and preferably buy direct. This is hard to 
ascertian, but the "wal-marts" do not buy through distributors.
The other factor that influences battery life is the YMMV phenomena. The old 
mercury batteries in my M5 would last no less than 2 years regardless how you 
used them.Switch on,off,Cap on, off, didn't matter. Self discharge was what 
ended up doing them in. Sure one would last 5 years on occaison. 
Todays circuits in cameras are much more power hungry,and unlike the computer 
industry, the battery industry dosen't have a Moore's Law. Advances in this 
business come much more slowly. This practiclly eliminates the self discharge 
failures. Today most cells die because they have done their job, and they are 
exhausted.

So at the end of the day, don't fight it. If Ag oxide batteris give you better
 life use them. Torpedos have ben powered by a different type of silver 
battery for decades. The superior cold weather performance of Li will  likley 
never be seen by a Leica photographer in thier normal routine. If your going 
to Alaska,or live there use Li.

Bruce Bowman
Killingworth CT